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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23890954">Danganronpa Canon Divergence: Trigger Happy Havoc Rewrite</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dtsuga93/pseuds/dtsuga93'>dtsuga93</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Danganronpa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Attempt at Humor, Crack, Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc Rewrite, Different Survivors, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Heavy Angst, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, I think its crack, M/M, Nonsensical bantering, Pink Blood, Underage - Freeform, alternative universe, different murderers, different victims, i write in small caps text just because i can, just so i can make them a tad more interesting, references just bc i can, slightly altered personalities</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:07:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>40,586</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23890954</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dtsuga93/pseuds/dtsuga93</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>monokuma began throwing to each of the students of what seems like cellphones. </p><p>“wait, where’s my cellphone?” enoshima was feeling her blazer pockets, empty. the rest of the class, alarmed, did the same. </p><p>“like what i told you, you’re supposed to be kept inside this school. those you’re holding, are your school id’s!”</p><p><i>a school, so this is hope’s peak academy.</i> naegi examines his id card, <i>naegi makoto, height: 160cm (5’3in), weight: 52kg (115lbs), bust size: 75cm (30in). bust size? the fuck?</i></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Asahina Aoi/Ogami Sakura, Fujisaki Chihiro/Oowada Mondo, Fukawa Toko/Genocider Syo | Genocide Jack/Togami Byakuya, Fukawa Touko/Togami Byakuya, Ikusaba Mukuro/Naegi Makoto, Ishimaru Kiyotaka/Oowada Mondo, Kirigiri Kyoko/Celestia Ludenberg, Kuwata Leon/Maizono Sayaka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>134</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. welcome to hope’s peak academy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“<i>ugh.</i>” naegi clutches his throbbing head as he slowly sat up. “what the fuck happened?” </p><p>opening his eyes, he expects to see blinding lights, “<i>huh?</i>” it’s not as bright as he thought it would be. he notices where the windows supposedly should be are covered with metal platings with those large nuts awkwardly sticking out. “is this supposed to be a classroom?” </p><p>he felt something cold, almost sticky leaking from his chin. <i>drool.</i> the luckster groans in frustration, <i>disgusting.</i> he wipes it off. </p><p>naegi spots a flyer on his desk. a poorly made one in his opinion. it reads, <i>head to the gym at 8am for the opening ceremony. i’ll be waiting~</i>, signed, <i>monokuma.</i> “who? wait— shit. what time is it?” he looks up and spots a clock, <i>7:45.</i> not that the luckster cares anything for other than for his migraine, he drifts back to sleep. </p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>someone barges in through the door. naegi, startled, he sees a boy, relatively his age with a white dashing uniform, resembling something of <i>those</i> upperclass schools. </p><p>“do you know what time it is?”</p><p>“u-uhm” the luckster looks up at the clock, <i>8:05.</i> </p><p>“now do you see how late you are?” naegi nods, <i>he’s like those uptight student council leaders, it’s fucking annoying.</i> </p><p>“pardon me for the intrusion, but i am ishimaru kiyotaka, ultimate moral compass.” <i>ah. that makes sense.</i> he walks up to naegi, a smile plastered on his face. he gives the luckster an offering hand. “ah— naegi makoto, ultimate lucky student. <i>supposedly.</i>” he takes it. </p><p>it was a normal handshake, hands clasped with the traditional shake. although what naegi didn’t see coming was that the prefect tightened his grip and grabs his other hand crouching to the desk’s level. “come now, i know you’re tired and you can’t necessarily trust me, but i’ll prove that to you otherwise.” he gives naegi sincere look, a softness to his default uptight voice. <i>he’s nicer than i thought.</i> </p><p>naegi stands up, his migraine seemingly gone. he follows ishimaru through the halls, still holding the other’s hand. </p><p><i>there are two classrooms. i suppose we’re on the first floor.</i> an ominous red door with red leather padding catches his eye. naegi stops. ishimaru gives him a glare that speaks loudly, <i>can you not?</i> </p><p>coming to his senses, the other boy lets go of the prefect’s hand and apologizes. </p><p><i>i wonder what’s behind that door.</i> the door is easily what stands out the most from those plain wooden, occasionally metallic doors. </p><p><i>bingo. we are on the first floor.</i> naegi spots a stairway up and no way down with unusual shudders blocking the way. </p><p> </p><p>ishimaru once again barges in through the gym’s doors, naegi follows closely behind. </p><p>“hello children!” </p><p><i>i would’ve bet my life on him saying with along the lines of ‘what’s up fuckers’ or ‘greetings fellow classmates’, but not</i> that. </p><p>thirteen heads turn to the pair, some of which are confused, some are of distaste, and of course those of holding laughter. </p><p>“<i>really?</i>” a girl that everyone in the room recognizes, enoshima junko, rolls her eyes, spoke in an annoyed tone. </p><p><i>i would’ve said the same.</i> naegi nods to himself. </p><p>“ah— yes, <i>really</i>, enoshima.” ishimaru smiled like a dork. <i>cute</i>, the luckster would’ve said. </p><p>“<b>oy</b>, who made <i>you</i> in charge?” a guy with a distinctive, almost ridiculous long pompadour snarled. </p><p>“owada, that’s not tolerated in this school environment.” ishimaru gave him a polite smile. </p><p>“children,” a couple of spiteful glances make their way to the prefect once again. “this is naegi makoto, ultimate lucky student.”</p><p>“ah, finally! we can now begin. took you long enough, hoodie!” a monochromatic bear, with a lack of a better term, <i>poofs</i> up on the stage. </p><p>“h-hoodie?” </p><p>“well, who else could it be, makoto!” </p><p><i>makoto.</i> something felt wrong with the mention of his first name. <i>how the fuck did teddy even know that was my name?</i></p><p>“now, what did you generation zuckers took so long?!” the bear stomps its feet, hand flailing in the air. </p><p>“<i>zuckers?</i>” a redhead with what it seems like a dyed goatee spoke up. </p><p>“z and fuckers!” he laughs condescendingly. </p><p>“so, z-fuckers?” the redhead asked profusely. </p><p>“no, you fake ginger of a baseball star! it’s <i>generation z</i> plus <i>fuckers</i>, 11037.” </p><p>“<i>who?</i>” </p><p>“that’s not what’s important, however, my name is monokuma.” </p><p>“so, you’re a monochromatic bear?” a girl with about lilac everything even eyes speaks up. </p><p>“why yes, kyoko! mono, kuma!” monokuma claps his hands. </p><p>“<i>kuma?</i>” another girl with a tracksuit questions, she turns to the muscular girl next to her, she shrugs. </p><p>“because, kuma means bear.” a guy with a big stature and even bigger backpack replied. </p><p>“that name doesn’t make sense in translation.” a girl with distinctive gothic lolita fashion refutes.</p><p>everyone looks at the girl with confusion. the girl just laughs, an awkward silence deafens the gym. </p><p> </p><p>“wait— i thought mono meant one? so why are you black <i>and</i> white?” a guy with wild— <i>no that’s an understatement,</i> ridiculously long floating hair filled in the silence, still deep in thought. </p><p>“toko,” a girl with glasses and dark purple hair and school uniform looks up, nervous. “could you please explain to three eyes what monochromatic means, my dear?”</p><p>“u-uhm, technically mono d-does pertain to one, a-although it also means lacking o-of variety, creativity, or e-excitement; ergo colorless. a-and technically white and black aren’t even c-colors... therefore, monochromatic b-black and white.” toko hides her head in more and more as she speaks. </p><p>“very good! a round of applause for fukawa toko, the ultimate writing prodigy!”</p><p>the class, at first did nothing, but monokuma growled at everyone, so the class claps anyway. </p><p>a guy with blonde hair and an expensive classy suit scoffs. </p><p>“what was that, four eyes?” </p><p>the blonde, toko, and the guy with a big stature looked up simultaneously at the bear. </p><p>“no no, not you, my dear,” he points at toko, “nor you hifumi.” he directs his hand to the blonde. “you, byakuya, hm?”</p><p>“i said nothing.” byakuya groans. </p><p>“so, does that mean <i>she’s</i> a monochromatic witch?” a girl everyone recognizes as well, maizono sayaka, points at the gothic girl, stifling a chuckle. </p><p>the gothic girl looks offended for a split second, but maintains her composure almost immediately. if you blinked you would’ve missed it. </p><p>“that’s not nice, maizono!” a tiny girl spoke up. “she’s not a witch, she’s a high roller gambler! and her name’s celestia!” </p><p>“i give you my gratitude, fujisaki.” celestia spoke in a heavy, but eloquent french accent. she gives the tiny girl a small smile.</p><p>“i guess that’s everyone!” monokuma speaks up and laughs. it’s very distinctive, cute one might say, but simultaneously disturbing, it’s something you wouldn’t forget. </p><p>the class looks at the bear in confusion, their looks screaming, <i>what?</i>, “anyway, children—“ </p><p>“hey that’s my schtick!” ishimaru points accusingly at monokuma. </p><p>the bear turns to his side, and growls at the prefect revealing shark-like teeth and glowing bloodshot eyes. the boy went silent. </p><p>“anyway, children, you may be wondering why you are all here. as you see to your sides, the windows are covered with metal platings. <i>those</i> are meant to keep you in.”</p><p>monokuma began throwing to each of the students of what seems like cellphones. </p><p>“wait, where’s my cellphone?” enoshima was feeling her blazer pockets, empty. the rest of the class, alarmed, did the same. </p><p>“like what i told you, you’re supposed to be kept inside this school. those you’re holding, are your school id’s!”</p><p><i>a school, so this is hope’s peak academy.</i> naegi examines his id card, <i>naegi makoto, height: 160cm (5’3in), weight: 52kg (115lbs), bust size: 75cm (30in). bust size? the fuck?</i></p><p>“those are essential to your school life from this point and onwards, so remember to always have it with you!”</p><p>“what if we don’t want to stay put?” the girl with the tracksuit respond. </p><p>“why not, aoi, my dear?” </p><p>“i mean, we’re all like what? 16? 17? there’s got to be a world outside this.. <i>shelter!</i>” </p><p>“actually i’m 20.” the floating long haired boy intervened. </p><p>the rest of the class stared at him in confusion, and mumbled along the lines of, <i>what the fuck?</i> and <i>makes sense.</i> </p><p>“as <i>i</i> was saying, no one gets out!” monokuma was about to leave, back already turned. </p><p>“wait— i forgot to say something. welcome to hope’s peak academy, my children! oh and by the way, you can only get out by murdering one of your classmates. check the rules, kids!” </p><p>and just like that he vanished. </p><p> </p><p><br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p><i>“now what?”</i><br/> <br/>  <i>“i’ll let them mingle with each other first before i give those zuckers a motive.”</i></p><p><i>“seriously, drop the zuckers thing. nobody found it funny.”</i><br/> <br/>  <i>“oh shut up!”</i></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. to die, to sleep</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“he said, WHAT?” the floating long haired boy screamed out. </p><p>“he said what he said, hagakure.” byakuya scoffed nonchalantly. </p><p>“the only way to get out of this shit hole is to <i>kill</i>?” owada growled. </p><p>“that’s what mr. togami byakuya said..” fukawa hesitatingly added, hiding behind togami. </p><p>“in what way did togami say that?” enoshima gives a fretful glare at the author. </p><p>“shut up, fukawa.” togami almost snarled. </p><p>“y-yes, sir!” </p><p>“i have a name, fukawa.”</p><p>“yes..” the girl trailed off, conflicted whether to say togami or byakuya, “..byakuya.”</p><p>“good girl, toko.” </p><p>fukawa, startled by the calling of her first name, a dark shade of red occupies her face. </p><p><i>good girl? she’s not a goddamn dog.</i> naegi stares at the odd pair intensely. </p><p>“she’s not a dog, togami.” enoshima blandly spoke up, staring accusingly at them. </p><p><i>oh wow— she read my mind.</i> naegi, startled, gives the model a look. </p><p>“comrades, we’re getting off track here!” ishimaru stomps on the floor once and gets everyone’s attention. </p><p>“<i>ooh!</i> mr. president has a new schtick <i>already?</i>” owada gives the prefect a deathly glare. the other boy chose to ignore that. </p><p>“is that true? you can only get out once you.. <i>kill?</i>” the prefect’s voice weakens from using the word, <i>kill.</i></p><p>“indeed. that’s what the rules says, is it not?” celestia swipes on her school id. everyone else follows. </p><p>
  <b>
    <i>rule #6:</i>
  </b>
  <i> anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.</i>
</p><p>“this is an abomination of word choice!” togami snarls. “becoming <i>blackened</i> could mean anything.”</p><p>“we do know one thing.” a voice engulfs the gym. it’s none other than kirigiri kyoko herself. “if the culprit were to be discovered, they won’t be able to <i>graduate</i>, of which i presume they won’t be able to leave.” </p><p>“i see you have a keen eye and attentive ears, kirigiri.” celestia aligns her eyes to kirigiri, to which the gambler’s surprise the other girl gives back. celestia slyly smirks. </p><p>in response, kirigiri plainly raises an eyebrow in confirmation and directs her gaze back to her school id. </p><p>“can anyone explain to me what exactly is <i>nighttime?</i>” fujisaki meekly responds. </p><p>“i guess it’s when some facilities are terminated, or locked off during 2200 until 700.” enoshima nonchalantly added, lazily swiping through the rules. </p><p>“<i>when?</i>” hagakure shoots a look. </p><p>“10pm until 7am. military time.” kirigiri responds. <i>she knows military time.</i> she takes note of that odd detail. </p><p>“so does rule number 7 mean teddy could just blatantly add another rule anytime he wants?” naegi’s voice evident with frustration. </p><p>“yes, it looks like it.” the muscular girl responds. 

“will you, ogami sakura, accompany me, asahina aoi, in exploring a way to get out of this shit hole?” asahina gives ogami a small smile and an inviting arm. the other girl takes it, intertwining their arms together. </p><p>“wait up for me!” fujisaki runs up to the pair, but stops, “if that’s alright you guys..” the pair nods and the other joins them, giving a small smile. </p><p>togami begins to walk, of course with fukawa tailing onto him. “toko, you aren’t a dog.” fukawa reacts rather worriedly, until togami gestures her to beside him, she calms down. </p><p>“hey, if you guys are leaving, so will i.” hagakure starts to walk away as well. the rest of the class mumbles in agreement. </p><p>“wait!” the rest of his classmates shoots a look back at ishimaru. “the meeting is now over! get to investigating and report back to everyone in the cafeteria at 8pm, comrades!” </p><p>everyone seems to agree. and so, they went on their separate ways. </p><p>kirigiri was heading out on her own when she heard the sound of heels clacking growing closer and closer. it was oddly consistent, monotonous, elegant even. it could only belong to one person. the girl looked behind her shoulder, to see who she’d expect would it be, celestia ludenberg, ultimate gambler. </p><p>kirigiri stopped. the continuous clacking, stepping persists. it was consistent. kirigiri loved the consistency. the gambler finally caught up beside the other girl. </p><p>“<i>ooh</i>, you’re quite the gentleman, kirigiri.” celestia took the girl’s hand and delicately pressed her lips against the leather glove. </p><p>“actually—“ </p><p>“upupupup,” the gambler shushes her, right index finger with an ominous metal claw, but exposes her stubby black nails. the coldness of the metal sticks to kirigiri’s mouth. she gives the gambler an intense stare, the other girl gives it back. celestia inches her face to kirigiri’s ear, “<i>let’s not dwell into semantics.</i>” she pulls back and gives the other a wide smile. a smile of which the gambler’s eyes disappears. </p><p>kirigiri liked that. </p><p>she raises an eyebrow at the gambler. </p><p>“<i>naegi, is it just me or are those two flirting?</i>” kuwata leaned against the luckster’s ear. </p><p>“<i>sure looks like it.</i>” maizono whispered back to the two teasingly. </p><p>“<i>you heard that?!</i>” kuwata practically screams if he weren’t whispering. </p><p>“i’m an esper!” the idol laughs, it gains odd looks from the boys, “i was kidding! come on now, let’s go.” she gestures both of them towards the door.</p><p>“hey! wait up for me.” a slight huffing was heard from across the room, it was coming from enoshima. </p><p>time seemed to slow down for both of them as they were the only left in the gym. the gambler spoke up, “now, shall we?” the pair slowly make their way out of the gym. </p><p>the class was divided into several groups, while everyone else went on with their separate ways. </p><p> </p><p>naegi, along with the other three headed over to the dorms. with a lack of anything better to do, leon began screaming incoherently through the walls inside his dorm. “HEY CAN YOU MOTHERFUCKERS HEAR ME? DELETE! <i>DELETE!</i> DELETE! DELE—”</p><p>“shut up, kuwata.” enoshima kicked the all star’s door shut. and just like that, the atmosphere became quiet. </p><p><i>soundproof walls, that’s definitely comforting.</i> naegi couldn’t help but stare at the model, mouth slightly hanging open. </p><p>“ah, a school where absolutely no one can hear your screams of agony. <i>how comforting.</i>” enoshima rolls her eyes. </p><p>
  <i>this girl keeps on reading my mind. if she continues to do that, i might actually begin to believe in soulmates.</i>
</p><p>“eggy, close your mouth, you look like you slept with a hanger as a mouth guard.” the model giving naegi an intense glare, arms crossed over. the luckster nodded, mouth still unconsciously open. the model lets out a chuckle with her signature eye roll. </p><p>“leoooooooooooooon,” maizono knocks impatiently on the now locked door. “what?” an annoyed kuwata leon emerges, face way too close to maizono’s. </p><p>he realized this too late and bumps his forehead against the other’s, “<i>hey!</i> that hurt.” maizono pouts. </p><p>“aw, can’t my saya handle a little pain?” he reaches out for the model’s cheek, slowly caressing her face. </p><p>“stop being lovey-dovey, not everyone <i>has</i> someone.” enoshima stares at the couple in distaste. </p><p>“hey, that’s what i thought!” naegi finally gets the courage to say what he’s been meaning to say since the <i>not-so normal</i> ceremony. </p><p>“really?” enoshima’s voice, soft, almost in awe. 

“yeah! you’ve been reading my mind since the ceremony, it’s uncanny.” naegi gives a shy smile. </p><p>maizono leans towards kuwata’s ear, “<i>now who’s being lovey-dovey?</i>” the pair giggles. </p><p>the other pair sees this, and of course they weren’t going to give in to defeat. naegi in turn, does the same and whispers to enoshima’s ear, “<i>glory to arstotzka~</i>” the model stifles a chuckle and leans in as well, “<i>just monika~</i>” not long after, with failing attempts to stifle chuckles, the room fills with laughter. the other pair glares at the two in confusion. </p><p>without hesitation, kuwata steps out of room, hands on the idol’s shoulders, he turns themselves around, their faces inches from each other. the all star pushes the girl against the wall and closes the distance between themselves and turns passionately, almost immediately. </p><p>naegi’s and enoshima’s faces were of distaste once again, before directing their gazes at each other. the pair, not knowing what to do, just stared at each other shyly for a moment. </p><p><i>holy shit, this girl’s my goddamn soulmate.</i> the luckster couldn’t help but stare back at the model’s gaze. </p><p>enoshima leans in and presses her lips against naegi’s cheek. </p><p>“how about that just for now?” enoshima softly replies. naegi nods silently, unable to look away, his face a dark shade of red. </p><p>“at least we discovered two important pieces of intel even if we had to watch those amateur porno actors.” naegi gestures over the couple. enoshima huffs in agreement. </p><p> </p><p>“<b>oy</b>, is it just me or are ye stumped too?” owada kicked the metallic plates, trying not to hit the bolts. </p><p>“i’m <i>stumped</i> too, man.” hagakure was sitting on the teacher’s desk.</p><p>“why do these pesky bolts have to be in the way? it makes no sense to be here!” the gangster aiming to kick his target once again. </p><p>“i don’t know. it’s probably gotta be a design choice or <i>something.</i>” a scent fills in the room. it was something that owada regrettably knows all too well. </p><p>“<b>oy</b>! STOP SMOKING YER WEED IN THE GODDAMNED CLASSROOM, <i>POTHEAD.</i>” </p><p>hagakure couldn’t give less of a fuck to care for the gangster’s insults, “don’t play as an <i>angel</i> in this situation~ it’s not like you didn’t know this was pot to begin with. am i right, delinquent?” the clairvoyant took the roll out from his mouth drawing shapes in the air as if drawing on the gangster’s face. </p><p>“just quit it, dude. i don’t ever wanna smell that shit again especially when it’s coming from yer damned mouth.” owada growled at the other boy. </p><p>“i could give two less fucks about you snarling at me. you ain’t the tiger you think you are.” hagakure eyes the gangster smugly, his face brightens up, “MAYBE YOU’RE A FUR—“</p><p>“SHUT UP.” owada’s fist went for the the other boy’s jaw, knocking him cold on the floor. </p><p>scuffling was heard in the room, it was coming from the hallway. there appeared a concerned and aggravated ishimaru on the doorway, “owada, this is not tolerated <i>anywhere.</i>” the prefect ran towards hagakure’s body. he was alive, pulse still beating, but unconscious. </p><p>“you could’ve fucking killed him!” ishimaru started to lift up the unconscious body. </p><p>“that’s what i was going for.” owada once again snarls, giving ishimaru a gaze that would normally scare shitless of some people, but ishimaru snarled back. </p><p>“i should you detention for this, but for now, i’m watching you, owada.” the prefect had hagakure’s body slumped on his shoulders as he left the classroom. </p><p> </p><p>“did you find something, fujisaki?” ogami asked from across the room. </p><p>“no.. i couldn’t find anything of use. i programmed a software that searches through the database of the computer for any basic information about the school, but couldn’t find anything useful.” the programmer clutches her forehead in frustration. “there seems to be a big chunk of deleted information and the archives are corrupted.”</p><p>“hey, don’t stress yourself out. you wouldn’t want to be burnt out now, would you?” the programmer turned to face the swimmer and shook her head. “besides, i know you’d find something.” asahina gives her a smile, her hand on the other’s shoulder. </p><p>fujisaki warmly smiles back her confidence coming back, “but i did manage to find something out of it.” she turns back to the computer, restarting her program as it scans through it again. “there seems to be five floors to this building. there doesn’t seem to have any kind of floor plan, but from what i can see, there’s a library at the second, a physics lab at the third, a chemistry lab at the fourth, and a greenhouse at the fifth.” </p><p>“i told you, you’d find something!” </p><p> </p><p>“well, well, what do we have here?” togami was intrigued by one of the refrigerated cases that contained blood banks. toko, meanwhile, was examining the medicines, pills, drugs, and everything else in a typical nurse’s room. togami opened the caseload and saw dozens of packs of the same type.</p><p>“toko, what blood type do you have?” the scion asked out of nowhere. fukawa, startled, began to shake, but managed to answer, “O, w-why do you ask?” </p><p>she turns around and sees the blood packs screaming, “<i>BLOOD!</i>” and collapses on the floor. </p><p>“<i>TOKO!</i>” togami, concerned, ran to the author’s side and gently shakes her body. </p><p>no response. “<i>shit!</i>” the scion lifts her up bridal style and sets her on one of the beds. </p><p>moments later, she wakes up and another completely different personality appears, laughing demonically. she stands up and was greeted by a horrified, but also very fascinated togami. </p><p>“multiple personalities.” <i>if ever this were to be revealed to everyone else, i am sure this would be interesting to unfold.</i> he says, eyeing up the girl, standing on the bed. </p><p>“byakuya, my love, it’s still me, but in another form, genocider syo, nice to finally meet you.” the murderous fiend whips out her scissors from her thighs underneath her skirt, snipping and snapping stepping down from the bed. </p><p>“fascinating.” was all the scion could say observing her movements, mannerisms, demeanor, and even her accent has changed. </p><p>“why am i here again?”</p><p>the door was once again barged open by none other than ishimaru himself and hagakure on his back. the prefect had a habit of barging into doors and not paying attention to anything else, except his goal. ishimaru set hagakure’s unconscious body on one of the infirmary beds. </p><p>the pair simultaneously asked, “what the hell happened?”, “blimey, ishimaru! the bloody hell happened to this chump?”</p><p>ishimaru startled by the unfamiliar voice, finally took notice of toko, or in this case, genocider syo. “AH! fukawa..? the fuck happened to your accent.. and you?” </p><p>“it’s toko’s alternate personality. from what i can see, toko and genocider share knowledge, but not memories as she couldn’t remember why she was in the infirmary, but she remembered you and i.” byakuya fixes the frame’s positioning on his face. </p><p>“you <i>are</i> always and absolutely correct, byakuya!” genocider gives a wide smile. </p><p>“b-but, that doesn’t explain your british accent! plus, you’re a fucking murderer! who says you won’t kill me?” ishimaru steps back.</p><p>“<i>oit</i>, there it is!” the fiend snips her scissors at the prefect and laughs, “actually ms. gloomy was in boarding school in europe when <i>i</i> first appeared!” </p><p>“ah,” ishimaru began to calm down, but was immediately reminded of something else, “y-you’re still a murderer! you’ve killed hundreds of people!” his voice shaky once again. </p><p>“<i>oit</i>, if i wanted to kill you, you wouldn’t be alive right now! besides, i only kill beautiful criminals!” </p><p>“a-ah, okay.” the prefect was calming down, but still very wary of the fiend. </p><p>“if it makes you feel better, come on here and lemme give you a hug!” genocider opens her arms, scissors now hidden. </p><p>“i-i guess.” reluctantly, ishimaru steps towards the fiend and wraps his arms around genocider. she hugs him back. </p><p>“this kinda feels nice.” ishimaru buries his head in genocider’s neck snuggling with her. </p><p>“i told you, mate. if i wanted you dead, you’d be dead!” </p><p>togami, in awe and all sorts of mischief wander his mind, watches the scene unfold at his sight. <i>cute.</i></p><p> </p><p>kirigiri was examining files taken out of boxes in the storage room, while celestia was rummaging for more. in fact, that’s what the pair had been doing for the past few hours, celestia would take out a box and set the folders on the desk, while kirigiri examines them. </p><p>“have you found something, yet?” celestia finally finished with all the boxes. she sat on the desk with a small huff. she observes kirigiri trace her gloved hand through a page, and then flips to another. </p><p>“nothing of particular interest.” kirigiri doesn’t look back, still focused on the files. </p><p>for about half an hour, celestia just observed and studied kirigiri. every time she finishes a folder, she sets it aside, in turn the gambler gives her another. she enjoyed the intricate adjoined movements, such as every time the metal claw on her right hand meets with the leather glove as she passes the folder. even if with no one was bothering to say anything, it was comforting for celestia knowing they could work in silence even with no particular topic in mind. </p><p>“you wouldn’t mind me helping out sifting these documents, would you?” celestia readjusts herself, plopping off the desk. </p><p>“would be quite helpful actually.” she huffs in agreement and pulls out a box to be a makeshift chair and chooses a folder from the plethora of documents. she takes it and opens the file. </p><p>celestia sifts through a few pages and, “violà!” she takes out a floor plan of the first floor. </p><p>“i’ve been skimming and scanning for hours with nothing substantial, yet here you are and pick up one file, finally a lead.” kirigiri lets out a small chuckle. </p><p>to anyone, it would ought to sound natural, normal, but celestia wasn’t just anyone. to her ears, there was a hint of self-depreciation. </p><p>in hopes to lift up the other girl’s spirits, “it was just luck. gambling luck to be precise.” celestia shrugs, as if it was nothing. </p><p>“gambling is hardly all luck. to an amateur the odds are split to 70/30, luck and skill. you are no amateur, however, for you could easily reverse the odds to 30/70.” kirigiri wasn’t looking up, her gaze was still on the file she was examining. </p><p>“you know what i see?” celestia paused, waiting for an answer, but the other girl remains silent, “i see someone with great analytical skills who could already make out a lot about one’s character through a single look.” </p><p>this gains kirigiri’s interest, she faces celestia. </p><p>“ah, you see? i was right.” celestia slyly smirks, “now, what do you see in me?” </p><p>kirigiri eyes celestia head to toe and looks back at the desk. </p><p>“i’d rather not say.” </p><p>celestia, visibly disappointed, but easily regains her composure, “why not, my dear?” </p><p>“you know why.” the other girl flatly says, hands on her chin, elbows on the desk. </p><p>the gambler was confused, but wouldn’t dare show that she was. she raises an eyebrow at kirigiri, but she wouldn’t look up. </p><p>no response. she lets it go. for now. if there’s anything she hates more than losing, that is unresolved conflicts. she’d have to ask that question again sometime in the near future. </p><p>celestia steers off the conversation, knowing better the other wouldn’t budge, “if i am a gambler, then you are?”</p><p>“i..” kirigiri ponders for a moment. </p><p>“..don’t know.” her face slumps lower to the desk. </p><p>“you don’t know?” </p><p>“..i don’t remember.” her gaze raises at the wall. </p><p>“if i gave you a title solely based on how you look,” kirigiri faces her, she raises an eyebrow, shunning a curious look, “you’d be,”</p><p>celestia leans over to the other girl’s ear, “<i>a detective.</i>”  </p><p><i>a detective.</i> something clicked. although, she wasn’t sure whether it was from celestia’s flirty advances or from the mention of the word, detective. </p><p>“how so?” </p><p>“just a hunch.” celestia shrugs. </p><p>“hunches aren’t reliable without substantial and critical reasoning, let alone evidence.” kirigiri answers flatly, her gaze back to the files. </p><p>“if you have nothing else to go by, a hunch would be a start.” the other girl nods at this. “oh and believe me, i am almost never wrong.”</p><p>“i sure hope you aren’t.” kirigiri meets the gambler’s gaze. </p><p>“don’t hope. believe in me, <i>detective.</i>” celestia winks and the smug smirk on her face resurfaces. </p><p>there was a slight crack in kirigiri’s mask, as her lips twitched, and almost immediately bites it down. </p><p>of course celestia noticed this sudden change of character, and in turn just morbidly laughs. <i>my my, i should call her that more often.</i></p><p>kirigiri clears her throat, “let’s not get ahead of ourselves too much and head to the cafeteria, shall we?” </p><p>“get ahe—“</p><p>kirigiri leans over to celestia’s ear, “<i>let’s not dwell into semantics.</i>”</p><p>“avec plaisir.”</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>ishimaru’s eyes were locked on the clock, <i>7:57.</i> he was waiting impatiently for almost 10 minutes in the cafeteria, his right leg shaking. </p><p>“it’s almost 8, why is no one here?” he unconsciously taps his nails on the table, very tempted to bite on it. </p><p>“ah! i’m sorry we’re late.” enoshima bows to ishimaru, slightly tensed. she was along with naegi, and a slightly disheveled kuwata and maizono, “these two touch-deprived animals began making out all of the sudden!” she points to the still flustered pair. </p><p>“don’t worry, you’re actually on time.” ishimaru gives a smile and gestures the four to be seated. </p><p>a few minutes later, there came asahina, ogami, and fujisaki. the three greets the rest and joins in the table. </p><p>about ten minutes later, celestia and kirigiri appears to the scene with greetings and the pair sits down across from each other. </p><p>not long afterwards, there came back with a slightly doozy hagakure slumping on owada’s shoulders and behind them was togami and fukawa. </p><p><i>1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 if i include myself.</i> “someone’s still missing.” ishimaru reviews each and every one of his classmates and it clicks, “AH, yamada? has anyone seen yamada?”</p><p>the class gives one another looks of confusion, and shook their heads. </p><p>“haven’t seen him all day.” enoshima shrugs, “and i doubt those fuckers had seen him either.” she points to kuwata and maizono. </p><p>“can confirm!” the all star proudly gives a thumbs up and a goofy smile, maizono does the same. </p><p>“couples.” naegi mumbles quietly. but enoshima heard this and they shared glances, pointing at each other and laughs. </p><p>“ah, the irony~” a slightly high hagakure points at the pair, chuckling. </p><p>“where <i>is</i> that creep anyway?” asahina speaks up, giving away feelings of distaste for yamada. “hina, calm down.” sakura speaks softly looking at the other in the eyes. the swimmer pouts, “okay, fine.” the class looks at the pair in suspicion. </p><p>“aaaaaaaaaaagh! why does everybody have someone?” hagakure whines. </p><p>“because yer a pothead.” oowada says flatly. there are different degrees of reaction, there are those who are stifling their laughter, another group are those with distasteful looks, and the rest are those laughing their asses off. </p><p>“don’t <i>laugh</i> at me!” the clairvoyant rolls his eyes, “ah, but i couldn’t care less. i am high <i>and</i> on sedatives after all.”</p><p>“where did you even get those.. recreational drugs?” celestia points a question with a hint of uncertainty. </p><p>“call it weed, ya hellspawn!” hagakure snaps back. celestia chose to ignore that. </p><p>“and i didn’t <i>just</i> get them from anywhere! there were just some leaves that happen to be in the kitchen.” the boy sluggishly points to the kitchen doors. </p><p>“what? i was there a few hours ago with ogami and fujisaki, and didn’t see any weird looking leaves.” asahina raises an eyebrow, sakura and fujisaki nod in agreement. </p><p>“that’s because you don’t know what it looks like!” hagakure triumphantly poses. “and i <i>refuse</i> to believe y’all motherfuckers don’t have vices!”</p><p>fujisaki, asahina, ogami, naegi, maizono, fukawa, and ishimaru shook their heads and mumbled something along the lines of “nope.” and “i don’t.”</p><p>“i guess that leaves everyone else! weed, do we have takers?!” hagakure stands up, raises his hand and points eagerly at everyone. owada raises a hand. “ahah! i <i>knew</i> it!” </p><p>“how about those less classy rolls, cigarettes mhmm?!” he points at everybody once again. owada, kuwata, and enoshima raises their hands. “there seems to more smokers than high jackasses here!”</p><p>the class gives the gangster a slightly surprised, but it was expected look. </p><p>“now, now! arguably humanity’s best and worst invention ever.. alcohol! who drinks those bitter tasting dried up fruits?!” hagakure once again points at his classmates for another round. togami, celestia, and kirigiri raises their hands. everyone else shoots a look at owada, “what?” </p><p>“are you sure you don’t <i>ever</i> drink, my fellow high smoker jackass?” hagakure teases, eyes deadset on the gangster’s. </p><p>“ugh, fine.” owada raises his hand. </p><p>“he covered all three bases! now that’s a home run!” the clairvoyant victoriously laughs, and leans back on his chair. </p><p>“<i>what the fuck is it with this jackass?</i>” kirigiri leans over to togami, “owada punched him for smoking pot.” the girl nods, “makes sense.”</p><p>“actua—“ kuwata began, but was cut off when somebody appeared at the door. </p><p>“i am so sorry!” yamada seemingly out of breath. “did i miss anything?”</p><p>“nothing of importance.” enoshima shrugs, the rest of the class seems to agree. </p><p>“where were you all <i>this</i> time?” ishimaru stands up, hands slamming to the table, “you are 28 minutes late.” </p><p>he huffs, hands on his knees for a few moments, “i fell asleep.”</p><p>without anyone noticing monokuma appeared on the only empty chair that was on the table, tiny arms resting on the backrest, feet on the table, “well, well, well.”</p><p>the class’s attention turns to the very relaxed bear with slightly varied reactions. </p><p>“now you, sir,” monokuma points at the still out of breath boy, “you will be given a punishment!” the bear laughs ominously, with his tiny stature, it’s quite hard to take the bear seriously, but they all know not to aggravate him. </p><p>“y-you don’t mean that do you?” fujisaki speaks up, voice shaky. </p><p>“by all means, i do, my dear!” monokuma flashes a smile, his white sided smile resembles of a cheshire cat, the other, his black sided smile resembles shark teeth. “it’s against the rules to deliberately sleep anywhere, but at the dorms! anyway, you children should discuss things first before i’ll call you all for his punishment!” </p><p>“by punishment, you mean what?” togami’s arms crossed not looking at the bear. </p><p>“that’s a great question, byakuya. but that would ruin the surprise! now, now, get back to your meeting and i’ll call for everyone in a while!” monokuma stood up from his seat, “bye, bye, children!” and just like that the bear disappeared. </p><p>everyone wordlessly stared at yamada, the boy very much afraid of what’s to come for him. </p><p>“‘<b><i>rule #3:</i></b><i> sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.</i>’” ishimaru was swiping at his school id. he puts it down, “comrades! we’ve been distracted from our original purpose! what have you people uncovered?”</p><p>“okay, i’ll start.” kirigiri stands up, everyone else facing her, “celestia and i were in the storage room, rummaging for useful intel.” she faces celestia, the gambler nods in agreement, “for about hours, there was nothing more than financial expenses and transactions in the last 50 years of this school with nothing of interest. although, in the past year, the newest addition to the school building was the greenhouse room, which its construction only began this year.”</p><p>“hey, from what i’ve uncovered, there seems to be a greenhouse room on the fifth floor!” fujisaki adds, asahina, and ogami nod in agreement. </p><p>“that would imply, the greenhouse room would still be in construction, correct?” celestia refutes. </p><p>“precisely.”</p><p>“with no one else inside this place, i would presume it’s discontinued.” togami raises an eyebrow, fukawa by his side almost aggressively nodding. the class nods as well. </p><p>“after hours worth more of searching, celestia,” kirigiri’s gaze redirects to the gambler, “found a floor plan of the first floor.” she reaches in her blazer and reveals a folded map. she sets it down on the table. </p><p>“we are currently here,” she points at the cafeteria, “this part of the building is apparently called, <i>hotel despair</i>, in hope’s peak.” the cafeteria’s atmosphere became tense with the word <i>despair</i> being mentioned, “while the other part is simply called the school area.” she takes her seat. </p><p>“thank you, kirigiri, now, let’s put togami to the stand.” ishimaru remained seated and pointed at togami. the scion stood up. </p><p>“toko and i were in the infirmary. there was nothing of particular interest except for the almost complete medical equipment, anesthetics, scalpels, antiseptics, and even supplements.” togami readjusted his frame, “ah, but there was one thing that caught my eye, blood packs. complete with every single type.” </p><p>“why would there be blood packs in an <i>infirmary?</i>” asahina asks with a curious look. </p><p>“if there’s a defibrillator in there, why wouldn’t there be blood packs?”</p><p>“a defiber— what?” hagakure places his feet on the table. </p><p>“defibrillator. now, put down your feet you, <i>pothead.</i>” the scion hisses, the clairvoyant puts his feet on his chair instead. </p><p>“that’s about it.” togami takes his seat, fukawa readjusts the scion’s seat. </p><p>“<i>i’m</i> supposed to do that for <i>you</i>, toko.” togami flatly says. fukawa panics, but visibly calms down when togami takes the author’s hand underneath the table. </p><p>“that was quite helpful, togami.” ishimaru nods at him, “fujisaki, you were telling us something about the fifth floor?” </p><p>“a-ah, yes. i’ve uncovered something about the school building.” the class looks up with hopeful faces, “but it’s nothing too special..” she trails off, “currently we’re on the first floor. there are five floors in this building to be exact. the status of the greenhouse room at the fifth floor is currently unknown, but from what i can see, there’s a library on the second, a physics lab on the third, and a chemistry lab on the fourth.”</p><p>asahina and ogami gave approving smiles, as fujisaki took her seat, “that’s about what i’ve learned so far.” </p><p>“that was insightful intel, fujisaki.” ishimaru gives the programmer a warm smile, she smiles back, “naegi, i trust you’ve uncovered something with enoshima, while those two, uhm— let’s leave it as <i>that.</i>”</p><p>naegi nods and stands up, “while kuwata was screaming for his life inside his dorm, i was <i>this</i> close,” the boy gestures an okay sign with the index finger and thumb almost touching, “to tearing my ears and stitching it on my eyes. thankfully, enoshima kicked his door shut and everything became silent.” the luckster gives enoshima a reassuring smile. </p><p>the model stands up, “based on that, i can say that the dorms are soundproof, since our ears and eyes were saved.” she does the same with her hand slams it on her knee. naegi just giggles, while the rest were staring in confusion. </p><p>“thank you to our most unlikely dynamic duo.” ishimaru gestures for the pair to sit, “i presume you have nothing to offer to the table, yamada?” the boy shakes his head. </p><p>“then that’s it then, meeting adjourned.” ishimaru adjusts himself on his chair, “but i got to say i was more surprised when celestia and kirigiri went together.” </p><p>celestia takes offense with this, “you make it sound as if us going together is an abomination. i fail to see what makes our relationship as such.” </p><p>“no, no, i meant that you, a gambler, and kirigiri, who strikes me as someone who works for the police force, to work together.” ishimaru stares at the pair intensely, hand on his chin. </p><p>“are you implying that i am a criminal?” the gambler regains her composure. </p><p>“how old were you when you started gambling?” </p><p>“seven, during my formative years and officially at the tender age of eleven.” celestia sticks a poker face at the prefect. </p><p>“how old are you now?” ishimaru raises an eyebrow. </p><p>“seventeen.” </p><p>“a minor gambling.” the prefect hums. </p><p>“your point?” the gambler answers flatly. </p><p>by this time, ishimaru knew he can’t win this <i>debate</i> and humbly accepts defeat, “ah, it seems that i am stumped without offending a party.” the prefect stands up to walk up to celestia and offers a hand. </p><p>celestia takes his hand, “indeed.” </p><p>the rest of the class, except kirigiri and togami, shot confused glances at the pair. </p><p>“ahem! attention, dear children!” a familiar voice fills in the cafeteria. it was coming from the speakers and the monitor opens to reveal monokuma sipping on a margarita. </p><p>“bears can drink alcohol?” kuwata stands up walking up to the monitor. </p><p>“not my taste, really.” celestia shrugs, remaining on her seat, but turns her chair towards the monitor. </p><p>“yeah, me neither.” kirigiri steps on the table, taking a seat next to the gambler. </p><p>“champagne is far superior.” togami puts his feet above the table with fukawa next to her. the rest of the class stood up and walked towards the monitor. </p><p>“now, children! i want hifumi, and hifumi <i>only</i> to head to the gym! i’ll call for everyone else later. disobey me, you might just end up like our class sleeper here.” monokuma laughs and the monitor closes. </p><p>yamada, defeated, hesitatingly walks away, not saying anything. </p><p>everybody went silent with the bear’s words as they watch the boy walk away slowly and disappear from their sight. they pity him, even if some of them didn’t particularly like him. ishimaru’s reaction was different. his blood was boiling, face twitching, and fists clenched so hard his hands went white, shaking. </p><p>owada took notice to the boy next to him and engulfed the prefect’s hand with his own. ishimaru looks up at the gangster, face softening, visibly calming down. </p><p>“not now.” was all the gangster said. ishimaru’s eyes were filled with tears threatening to fall down. the prefect, without warning, wraps his arms around owada. the gangster hugs him back, patting his back, giving ishimaru the comfort and reassurance he needed. </p><p>everybody saw the scene unfold beneath their eyes, but all said nothing. it was a nonverbal agreement to not speak of it and no one did. </p><p>the speakers went static and a familiar voice was heard, “p-please don’t do this, m-master monokuma..” </p><p>“i didn’t wish it would end up like this, but i have to do what’s necessary to maintain order.”</p><p>yamada’s screams were beating through the speakers, piercing through everybody’s ears. collectively, the class closed their ears from either their clothes or with their bare hands, but it didn’t do much as the boy’s screams were echoing throughout the cafeteria, the blocked windows making everything worse. the screams were replaced with a sharp loud bang. </p><p>something or <i>someone</i> exploded. </p><p> </p><p><br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>
  <i>“was that really necessary?”</i>
</p><p>  <i>“no! but it was incredibly despairing seeing them like that though!”</i></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. the patronage</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“hello children!” monokuma appeared again on the screen, “please proceed to the gym.” he simply smiles and the monitor closes. </p><p>“do we really have to do what teddy says? i don’t take orders from stuffed animals.” owada snarls, facing his classmates. </p><p>“the fuck did you say, haircut?” monokuma appeared above the speakers, flailing his tiny arms around. he plops down walking towards the gangster, “i am <i>not</i> a stuffed animal!” </p><p>“yeah, sure.” owada laughs, arms crossed on his chest. </p><p>“just see what happened to your friend in the gym, and then we’ll discuss if i’m just a stuffed animal.” monokuma steps back and disappears. </p><p>“aight! come on.” the gangster gestures out of the cafeteria, leading the way to the gym. </p><p>nobody could utter a word. it wasn’t a long way to go, but the deafening silence was creeping up on their nerves. </p><p>it was ishimaru, per usual, who barged the door open, revealing blood on the floor. the class was worrisome with yamada no where to be seen. </p><p>monokuma once again appears on the stage, standing on the podium, “did you really think i’d kill him?” </p><p><br/>
</p><p>“...”</p><p><br/>
</p><p>..!</p><p><br/>
</p><p>“where the hell is he?” owada, seemingly the only one who could argue against monokuma. </p><p>“can’t you wait? i was just pausing for the despair to take even more effect! patience is a virtue, haircut.” monokuma’s red glowing eye staring directly at the gangster, “did they not teach you that in school? ah, that’s why. i forgot they kept kicking you for being a delinquent!” the bear laughs again, his mouth open at an unsettling wide gape. </p><p><i>that mouth could crush a human’s head if he wanted to.</i> naegi inches closer to enoshima, reaching for her hand. the model redirects her attention to the warm hand intertwining with hers. they share momentous gazes at each other. the pair gives affirming nods and turns back to the stage. </p><p>“hifumi? <i>..hifuuuuuuumi?</i>” monokuma turns his head to the stage and looks from left to right and right to left, “ah! that’s right, i forgot i hung him!”</p><p>the stage’s ceiling opened like a trapdoor dropping a big cross from above with two ropes hanging attached to its left arm and its head, forming an x with the boy crucified. his feet and right hand tied, his left nailed with blood dripping to his body, occasionally to the floor. </p><p>“<i>AGH JESUS!</i>” hagakure covers his eyes, violently lashing on the air. </p><p>“<i>not quite.</i>” monokuma smirks, causing only one side of his mouth to creep up into a smile, revealing his shark teeth. </p><p>the class was mortified at the sight, as most couldn’t bare to look at the boy. yamada’s middle finger was no where to be seen, possibly blown off. </p><p>fukawa faints at the sight. with an alarmed togami, he lifts her up to hang onto his shoulders, <i>don’t wake up now.</i></p><p>“Y-YOU BLEW HIS FINGER OFF?!” was all owada could utter at such a sight. </p><p>“actually, that was an accident. i was just supposed to lock him up in a cell and leave him there for the night,” monokuma jumps to point at his hand, “but hentai here tried to tackle me, so i self-destructed and his finger blew up from it!” </p><p>“and that’s supposedly <i>his</i> fault?!” owada was gritting his teeth, fists shaking. </p><p>“absolutely.” </p><p>owada ran towards the stage lunges at monokuma’s neck, which his gigantic hands easily engulf. “tell me <i>one</i> good reason why i shouldn’t <b>crush</b> your neck.”</p><p>“i can’t.” monokuma smirks, his bloodshot eye glowing. he shuts down, red eye glowing and emits a subtle beeping sound. </p><p>“what the <b>fuck</b>?” owada’s grip on the bear tightens as electric shocks run through the gangster’s arm, the beeping speeding up.</p><p>“THROW IT BACK!” kirigiri yells as she gestures for everyone else to step back. </p><p>“THE <b>FUCK</b> WHY WOULD I DO THAT?!” the gangster’s hand shaking from the electric shocks. </p><p>“NO! THE GODDAMNED BEAR! THROW THE FUCKING BEAR!” kirigiri and the rest runs to back corner of the gym. owada throws it as far from him, yamada, and from the rest, while the bear explodes midair barely missing the crucified boy. </p><p>there was a few moments of silence in the gym as everybody rushed to yamada’s aid, “a-at least he’s gone.” the crucified boy lets out a pained chuckle. </p><p>“nope, not quite. you should know that by now.” monokuma appears again from the stage, walking up to the podium. </p><p>“YA <b>FUCKEN</b> BURNED MY GODDAMN HAND!” oowada shakily rolls up his sleeve to see the discoloration. </p><p>“for the leak that you actually are, you still have the balls to tackle me like that?” monokuma sits on the podium and growls as his bloodshot eyes’ red glow fill in the gym, his mouth open with a wide gape capable of whatever atrocity you could imagine as it highlights his cunning shark teeth. </p><p>owada shrinks down, taken aback by monokuma’s words. </p><p>celestia leans over to kirigiri’s ear, “<i>can he really be knocked down by merely a sentence worth of words?</i>”</p><p>“i highly doubt that, but it’s quite the contrary to what we’re seeing right now.” kirigiri takes note of that. </p><p>a loud, but gentle ringing of a bell was heard in the gym, “ah, that’s it for the day! it’s 10pm meaning the nighttime rule takes effect. that means there’s no water supply until 7am.” monokuma struggles to get off of the podium from his stubby stature, making him to use his arms and legs as weight to fall on the floor. </p><p>“b-but what about yamada?” fujisaki asks concerned. </p><p>“ah, don’t worry about him! like i said, i was supposed to keep him in a cage, but that’s over now! he’ll be crucified until the morning. that’ll teach him a lesson about sleeping in class. sleep well, children!” monokuma flashes a wide smile, turns around, and disappears from sight. </p><p>togami, with fukawa hung on his shoulders, was rushing to the back and kicks the backdoor open, careful not to let them hit fukawa. </p><p>“if he’s going, so will i!” enoshima’s loud footsteps fill the room, “junkie, wait up!” naegi catches up with the model, she halts, “<i>junkie?</i>” </p><p>“i-i’m sorry, it wasn’t appropriate. i shouldn’t have called you that.” naegi falters, he tries to approach enoshima. </p><p>enoshima clenches her fists, refusing to face the luckster, “<i>don’t</i>, follow me.” she proceeds to angrily kick the door open. </p><p>“naegi..” fujisaki eyed the luckster in sympathy, a softness juxtaposed with disappointment in her voice. she follows junko out of the gym. </p><p>“wait! no! we can’t just leave him here, right?” it was a rhetorical question, but most were indifferent from ishimaru. the prefect climbs up to the stage, trying to reach for the ropes, “owada, help me up.” the gangster says nothing and turns his back heading to the door. </p><p>“owada! that’s an order.” ishimaru catches up to the other boy, blocking his way. </p><p>“no. i <i>don’t</i> take orders from you. besides, just thinking about what monokuma is capable of, who fucking knows what’ll happen to you if you let him down.” owada dodges the prefect and continues walking towards the exit. </p><p>“let him go, ishimaru.” naegi walks up to the prefect and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. </p><p>“so does that mean he can’t sleep while.. hanging there?” asahina looks up with concern at the crucified boy. </p><p>“nope, i can’t. master monokuma made sure i knew that.” yamada shakes his head. </p><p>“i can’t leave him here!” ishimaru runs back to the stage, “i’ll stay with him.”</p><p>“but ishimaru, you aren’t allowed to sleep while being here too, right?” asahina approaches the stage, “you sure about staying here?”</p><p>“absolutely! he’s my comrade and i am not abandoning him.”</p><p>“then i’ll come with you!” </p><p>“if she’s in, so am i.” ogami walks up to the stage. </p><p>“<i>ah~</i> master asahina aoi and master ogami sakura are going to protect me too?” yamada was getting a bit too hasty, causing his left hand to unconsciously twitch from excitement, which elicits an unpleasant grunt from him, the once sluggish droplets of blood accelerated. </p><p>“karma caught up to him fairly quick.” hagakure chuckles causing him to slump a bit while walking away. kuwata approaches him and letting the clairvoyant hung onto his shoulder, maizono was quick to notice this and does the same. as one, the three exits the gym. </p><p>“ah, suit yourself.” celestia turns her back slyly taking kirigiri by the arm with her, without much of a reaction from the other girl. </p><p>“master celestia ludenberg, please don’t leave my side.” the crucified boy’s voice weak reeking with desperation. </p><p>kirigiri leans over to the gambler’s ear, “<i>the fuck is with him?</i>” </p><p>“honestly? there’s a chance that he has a penchant for me, not that i am assuming of course.” celestia walks away with kirigiri slung onto her arm. </p><p>“i guess, i’ll stay here.” naegi sniffles, eyes glossy. dejection was all you could hear in his voice as he slumps to the stage. </p><p>everybody else headed back to their respective dorms with the exception of kuwata and maizono to reside in the former’s and fukawa was at togami’s with him so he could keep an eye on her. </p><p> </p><p>togami was rushing to his dorm, taking out his dangling keys in advance. fukawa could wake up at any moment and he’d do anything to keep her secret from everybody else, besides to the one other person who knows, ishimaru, as she requested. hagakure was still unconscious by the time genocider turned back to toko. it was only by a simple sneeze to switch herself back. </p><p>the scion practically kicks his door open and once inside, he kicks it again closed.  he walks up to his bed to lay toko down. byakuya pulled out a chair to sit on and kept watch on the girl, until he fell asleep. </p><p> </p><p>fujisaki was catching up with enoshima in the hallways. she hears fast footsteps, to which the model stops and angrily looks back at her shoulder expecting to see naegi, but immediately calms down to see it wasn’t him. </p><p>“ah, fujisaki, why’d you run after me? i thought you were egghead for a second.” the programmer finally catches up with her, “you were upset, so naturally, i had to come for you!” the tiny girl gives enoshima a warm smile as they walk together in the halls. </p><p>“<i>ah</i>, i hate men sometimes.” enoshima unconsciously tilts her head looking up, hands placed on her hips. the programmer’s face visibly flushes at the statement, seeming to take offense.</p><p>“wait! i’m sorry. i didn’t mean that.” enoshima steps back, distancing herself. it was quite a habit for her, “it’s okay.” fujisaki gives a small smile at her, “are you—“ </p><p>“a guy? yes.” fujisaki flatly answers. </p><p>“WAIT, so i have been using the wrong pronouns all this time?!” the model face palms herself. </p><p>“actually, not really.” </p><p>enoshima removes her hand from her face giving fujisaki a curious look. </p><p>“any are good, really. because i’m actually gender fluid, but please use she/her for the time being.. because i don’t know what the rest of our classmates would think.” her face falls to the floor, voice getting weaker. </p><p>“hey,” enoshima raises the fujisaki’s chin, “your secret’s safe with me.” she gives the programmer a reassuring smile as they headed to their respective dorms. </p><p> </p><p>kuwata and maizono, who were assisting the still sedated hagakure catches up with the walking figure in front of them, “owada, could you give us a hand here? this guy’s goddamn heavy.” kuwata gains the gangster’s attention. </p><p>owada turns around and without hesitation carries hagakure on his back all the whole way back. </p><p>he settles the clairvoyant in his room, he emerges out heading to his. </p><p>“by the way,” kuwata with maizono clinging on his arm, the gangster turns to the couple with a simple, “hm?”</p><p>“how did that fucker get so stoned anyway?” </p><p>“ah,” owada with his door opened, stands on the doorway, “he got stoned when we were investigating the classrooms. i told him to stop, but pothead wouldn’t listen and started insulting me, so i knocked him out to shut him up. then mr. perfect—” kuwata almost corrected him that it was <i>prefect</i> not <i>perfect</i>, but was stopped when the girl clinging onto him pulled his hand back, “—came along, and carried him away to the infirmary. apparently they sedated him because i punched him <i>that</i> hard that the pot was practically useless because his jaw still hurt.” he enters his room and closes the door on them. </p><p>“wow.” was all kuwata could say, “that’s a lot of information to take in thirty seconds.” maizono perplexed, her free hand on her head. the pair looked at each other, nodded simultaneously, and entered the all star’s room. </p><p> </p><p>kirigiri and celestia walked through the halls silently, secretly enjoying the presence of the other. at least celestia was. she’d been studying kirigiri with her eyes’ content. kirigiri’s hair, kirigiri’s gloved hands, kirigiri’s lilac eyes, kirigiri’s neck. to bite on it would be celestia’s biggest fantasy, but there’s no way in hell she’d admit to that. for now. </p><p>the pair reached the dorms and celestia was the one to pull apart from their clutch, “goodnight.” she gives a quick peck on kirigiri’s cheek. <i>i’d have to do that lower at some time.</i></p><p>they walked back to their respective dorms, seeming that would be the end of their interaction until celestia speaks up, “ah kirigiri, hold up.” she gains the attention of the other girl, the latter giving her a look, “what did you see in me back in the storage room?” </p><p>“you know what i meant.” kirigiri flatly says, her gaze returning to her door. </p><p>“in that case, dream about me, <i>detective.</i>” celestia shrugs as she walks towards her dorm not bothering to look back at kirigiri. this gains the other girl’s attention, turning to the gambler attempting to protest only to see she was already in her dorm, the door slowly shutting. </p><p>with no way to budge the other from either party, they entered their dorms <i>defeated.</i> they hated that. </p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>“good morning, children! it’s 7am, facilities are now resumed and all rooms are unlocked for your pleasure. please head to the gym for our de-hanging ceremony in about an hour for mr. hifumi!” monokuma is seen holding another piece of glassware, with bubbles rising. </p><p>it wasn’t until the 7am bell and announcement that genocider woke up, surprised to see she was in togami’s room. she had no recollection what happened last night, but the boy was still soundly asleep and she didn’t want to wake him. she thought it’d be a while for him to wake up, so she decided to freshen up back in her room. </p><p>by the time she was done, she turned back to fukawa and headed back to togami’s room, to her surprise, he was still soundly asleep. it was already nearing eight in the morning, so she shook the boy gently. </p><p>togami’s vision was filled with the dark purple. he rubs his eyes, slowly regaining his sight to see toko in front of her. </p><p>“good morning, byakuya.” toko smiled warmly to which the boy gave back stifling a yawn. </p><p> </p><p>everybody was already there giving the pair disapproving looks for being so late. togami looked at his watch, <i>8:24am</i>, “ah, apologies. i would’ve came sooner, but i had matters to attend to.” </p><p>“no trust fund kid, you overslept! everybody here did what they were told yet you’re treated as if you’re a king!” monokuma stood on the podium, preparing to jump, “i’m not going to hesitate in punishing you if you don’t abide by the few school rules i have set up.” the bear jumps off the stage podium hanging on one of the cross’s ropes, the crucified wary of the figure rotating, “thankfully for you, there’s none for oversleeping.”</p><p>togami huffs in discontent and rolls his eyes, arms where they always are, crossed against his chest.</p><p>“anyway, since everybody’s here,” monokuma tugs on the rope, the crucifix abruptly falls almost hitting the ground. yamada’s eyes were dry with big dark bags underneath. his left hand was a dark shade of pink, almost red. </p><p><i>dried blood is even more disgusting to look at than fresh blood.</i> naegi shakes his head, trying to get the image out. he turns to look at enoshima, she was focused on the bear. he was about to walk towards her when a sleep deprived ishimaru places his hand on the luckster’s shoulder, giving him a disapproving head shake. </p><p>“now, you can help him out now. that’s it for this morning.” monokuma dropped to the ground, surprisingly landing on his feet, “goodbye, children!” he turns his back on the class and disappears. </p><p>“how in the actual fuck— AH!” hagakure was interrupted by shooting sharp pains on his jaw. he touches it, making it worse and drops to the ground, screaming in agony. </p><p>“<b>oy</b> pothead, stop touching yer face, it’ll hurt more.” owada approaches the clairvoyant, lifting him up on his shoulders. </p><p>“you do know it’s your fault to why he’s in pain in the first place, right?” enoshima taps her foot, arms crossed, not bothering to look at them. </p><p>owada just huffs in agreement with hagakure’s hisses growing quieter as they leave the gym. </p><p>the rest of the class came forward with the exception of a few, and even those who stayed behind still insisted on helping. </p><p>“alright, how the fuck are we supposed to remove the nail?” naegi asks examining the boy. </p><p>“i’ll get my tool kit!” kuwata ran straight out of the gym, being an all star would sure make it back quick. </p><p>“i guess that’s settled.” naegi and enoshima simultaneously say, giving each other awkward looks until the model breaks her gaze. everybody else just looks at the pair with suspicious looks. </p><p>“we can untie his right hand for now.” naegi says as ogami lifts him up on her shoulders as he unties yamada’s right hand. </p><p>there came someone barging through the door, it was kuwata with his toolset, “ah, my bugs bunny!” maizono dreamily walks up to him, “ah my lola bunny!” the all star embraces the model. </p><p>this earns two distasteful grunts from none other than naegi and enoshima themselves. </p><p>celestia leans over kirigiri’s ear, “<i>why won’t those two make up already? they seem like the perfect couple.</i>”, “<i>i have a hunch, but i’m trying to make sense with what we’re presented.</i>”</p><p>“my, my, detective, what have i told you about hunches? besides, not everything you see at face value is factual.” celestia gives kirigiri a raised eyebrow. </p><p>“<i>exactly, connoisseur.</i>” kirigiri whispers to celestia. the gambler knew what her tone on the surface meant, it was to tease her. but there was something else, something clicked with the title the detective had given her. moreover, there’s the undertone with the way she said <i>exactly</i>, of which celestia, for the life of her, could not make sense of either word behind its teasing tone. </p><p>interrupting celestia’s train of thoughts was yamada’s eventual freedom from the cross, “it’s like a black friday miracle!” enoshima looks up in awe, her hands clasped together. </p><p>“this couldn’t be more of the end of satan’s reign than it is of god’s miracle.” togami huffs in disapproval, while seated on the bleachers with fukawa next to him. </p><p>“i digress. how you look at the matter fundamentally gives you the edge of which side you pick on.” celestia perks up, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. togami gives the gambler a look, then gives her a nod of approval. </p><p>“it was just a joke though. no need to take it so seriously.” enoshima sits on the edge of the stage. unconsciously, naegi grunts in annoyance. the model notices this and retracts her statement, “wait, that sounded very hypocritical of me.” and bitterly laughs. </p><p>half of the class got this and huffs in agreement, while the other half gave looks of confusion. </p><p>“anyway, i don’t any part of this. i am sleepy. meeting’s still at 8pm. don’t be late. see you later, comrades!” ishimaru yawns, heading back to the dorms with ogami and asahina following. </p><p>yamada meanwhile also exits the gym, but was headed to the infirmary. </p><p>naegi gives one more look at enoshima, before joining ishimaru. </p><p>“i’ll go look after yamada.” fujisaki announces and catches up with yamada. </p><p>“what did eggy do that got you so worked up?” togami flatly says, standing up, “hoodie called me a junkie.” enoshima reaches in her blazer, “it’s not like you to care about these kind of shit anyway, so why’d you ask?” she brings out a box of cigarettes and a lighter. </p><p>everyone‘s gazes turns to the box and says something along the lines of, “woah, hold on for a second.” “don’t do that.” “hehehehey there’s a place and a time for that.” </p><p>“what?” enoshima visibly annoyed, stick on her mouth, “it’s not like you all don’t have vices! hell, celestia, you gamble for a living.” </p><p>celestia nods at this and mumbles a small “all right.”</p><p>“where did you even get that?” togami points at the cigarettes. </p><p>“this?” she holds onto the box, “well, it was in my blazer when i arrived here.” she lights it, “and i’m not going to put <i>all</i> of this nicotine to waste, am i?” she takes a deep puff and white smoke comes out of her mouth, some out of her nose. she visibly relaxes as she dazes at the ceiling. </p><p>“seems like you kind of need it.” kirigiri examines the girl and she notices something odd. <i>why would a model like her smoke?</i> she shrugs it off as it’s enoshima’s life, not hers and who was she to dictate what someone could and couldn’t do? they weren’t under authoritarian rule after all, right?</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>the rest of the day was quite normal, not much has happened. some investigated what was left unexplored in the school, some slept in their dorms, some stayed in the infirmary, and some did absolutely nothing all day. </p><p>although tension was always present between naegi and enoshima whenever they passed by each other, occasionally insulting the other in very petty manners. </p><p>the school day went by so fast it was already 8pm with nothing much done. it was time for their evening meeting in the cafeteria. as per usual, ishimaru was already ten minutes early. a few minutes later, there came enoshima. </p><p>“early again, enoshima?” ishimaru gave the model a reassuring smile. </p><p>“you’re cute, you know that?” enoshima takes the seat closest to ishimaru, turning it around and sits down. ishimaru clearly caught off guard, his face was a clear shade of red, “m-me?”</p><p>enoshima erupts in laughter, head facing the ceiling, “i’m sorry. i <i>always</i> wanted to do that!” trying to catch her breathe, she coughs, punching her chest. the prefect just watched her, still relatively embarrassed, “f-for what it’s worth, i think you’re very beautiful, enoshima.” </p><p>she wasn’t expecting that. enoshima tries to regain her composure, she fails. she wasn’t anything like kirigiri or celestia, or even togami who could keep their shit together, instead her face heats up. </p><p>“i thought you’d be used to people calling you beautiful, considering your profession. unlike me, who people despise because i was always adamant in maintaining order.” ishimaru calmly says, giving the model a look, “but with all that aside, i mean it.”</p><p>enoshima still looks relatively flustered, but manages to mumbles a quiet and shaky,  “shut up..” her tone wasn’t rude, it was more shy and somehow playful if you really look into it. </p><p> </p><p>about ten minutes later, everybody was in the cafeteria. the discussion relatively equated to nothing, as nobody found anything else new. </p><p>something of importance did happen, as ishimaru proposes another annual meeting in the cafeteria </p><p>“alright, comrades, i feel like our evening meetings aren’t enough.” everybody knew what was coming, “i propose another annual meeting in the morning at 7:30am sharp!”</p><p>frustrated grunts filled in the cafeteria.</p><p>“why does it have to be at 7:30?” hagakure whines, “it’s too early!” </p><p>“yeah! how am i supposed to get ready in the morning with just 30 minutes?” asahina gives ishimaru a disapproving head shake. </p><p>“how about at 9am?” celestia calmly says, arms crossed. </p><p>“9am?!” owada raises his voice, “that’s two whole hours worth of waiting!” </p><p>“then let’s compromise,” kirigiri adds to the conversation, “i believe the table holds 8am?” </p><p>celestia gives kirigiri a surprised look, “my, my, my detective knows her gambling jargon.” the gambler gives kirigiri a questionably eyebrow raise and a sly smirk. she leans forward, hands on her chin, elbows on the table, “in that case, i’m all out for 8am.” her gaze not leaving the detective’s. </p><p>audible <i>ooh</i>’s and questionable looks were focused on the pair. </p><p>“if she’s for 8am, so am i.” togami leans back on his chair.</p><p>“i’ll go with whatever byakuya says.” fukawa shyly adds, she almost shrinks down, until the scion holds her hand and gains confidence once more, “8am.”</p><p>“ah if they’re in, so am i!” kuwata looks at maizono, waiting for an answer, “of course! i’m in for 8am.” the idol gives a cheerful smile. </p><p>“alright, i can deal with 8am.” hagakure slurs in his speech, presumably from the meds he was in. </p><p>“so am i.” naegi and enoshima simultaneously say, the pair looks at each other, embarrassed, but nods to each other in agreement. </p><p>“it’s quite sickening how those two get along so well. even when fighting they still manage to find something they both agree on.” owada readjusts on his seat, the pair glaring looks at him, “see?” they both look away again, “fine. 8am.”</p><p>“an hour seems fair enough.” sakura shrugs, “an hour’s good!” asahina nods with enthusiasm. </p><p>“if that’s where master ogami sakura and master asahina aoi are headed, so will i!” yamada gives a dorky thumbs up. </p><p>“yeah! me too.” fujisaki almost yells. </p><p>“in that case, 8am it is. objections?” ishimaru stands up, hands banging on the table. collectively, the class agrees. </p><p>even through all this, kirigiri remained her composure despite the whole class was ganging up on them. <i>she can really keep her shit together.</i> celestia liked that. </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>
  <i>“this day has been boring. it only became interesting until later today. any more of this, i’ll be dropping motives soon.”</i>
</p><p>  <i>“has it really been boring?”</i></p><p>
  <i>“what do you think? i’ve been sitting on my ass all day waiting for someone to cause trouble! if nothing happens tomorrow, i’ll give them an edge.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“suit yourself.”</i>
</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. black.. listed?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>the loud and gentle ringing of the bell was heard throughout the whole first floor of the school. the monitor opened and featured monokuma holding a bottle of beer, casually leaning on a chair, “good morning, children! it’s 7am, all facilities including water and all closed off sectors are now open for your pleasure.”</p><p>“who the fuck drinks this early morning?” kuwata rubs his eyes, voice raspy. he sits up on the bed with maizono by his side. for the last two nights the pair had alternated between in his and in maizono’s room. for today, they were in the latter’s. </p><p>the girl next to him speaks up, “probably you, leon.” and turns trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. </p><p>“hmp.” kuwata leans over to maizono’s side of the bed and pecks her forehead, “maybe, but i quit drinking. i’m going to head to the shower. if you want, you can join me~” </p><p>“i’m too tired. sorry, leonie. wake me up when you’re done.” maizono once again tries to find a comfortable spot and settles in. a few moments pass and she’s soundly asleep again. the all star always loved looking at her in the morning. they weren’t together for that long, maybe almost a year in before they were scouted by hope’s peak. but what made them last up until this havoc was because kuwata was with her when her only sister died. with her mother and sister’s premature deaths, there was only her struggling father and kuwata left in her life. </p><p> </p><p>it was seven in the goddamn morning and the first thing naegi hears are those stupid bell chimes. he hates hearing them. </p><p>“hey, hoodie. i have something to tell you.” monokuma appeared sitting on the luckster’s headboard. he already didn’t have a goodnight’s sleep and the last thing he needed right now is someone badgering him in his room. </p><p>monokuma proceeded to lightly shake the boy with his feet, which earns the bear a raspy grunt, almost sounding like a growl from him, “oh whatever, i was just about to tell you something about junko. i guess i’ll just leave.” the bear was dangling his legs still seated on the headboard. with this, naegi forces himself to wake up, “hold up,” he sits at the edge of his bed, “yes?”</p><p>“it’s quite scary to how much of an influence that girl has on you,” monokuma jumps off the bed, landing on the mattress, “but anyway, i saw her flirting with kiyotaka last night before your evening meeting.” naegi’s face was in disbelief.</p><p>“what? no way.”</p><p>“what do you mean, <i>what?</i> yes way!” </p><p>naegi’s blood was boiling, after all, he was never a morning person, “you’re lying.”</p><p>“hey! if there’s one thing you could rely me on is that i never lie! never, my child.” monokuma jumped off the bed, walking up to the door. </p><p>“why are you telling me this?” naegi massages his forehead in frustration. </p><p>“why? because i’m bored, eggy.” with that, the bear turns his back on naegi and disappears. </p><p>naegi usually isn’t awake at this time of the day. on good days, he wakes up at around an hour later after the morning announcement. however, usually, he oversleeps and before he knows it, it’s already noon. </p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>naegi decided to do his shit very early today. if what monokuma’s saying to him is true, he’d have to find out himself. the luckster had his door ajar as he waited inside standing by his door. he looked up at the clock, <i>7:53am.</i> from what he knew, enoshima was always early to the meetings. </p><p>“this is stupid.” he mumbles to himself, his body leaning against the wall. little by little he was falling to the ground, “it’s not like we’re even dating. why does this hurt me so much?” by this time, he was curled up with the wall, hugging his legs. he couldn’t, for the life of him, pinpoint why this was even bringing him down so much. he rubbed his eyes with his sleeve. <i>ah, drool and tears on my blazer. disgusting.</i></p><p>for a few moments, he sat there silently. his train of thoughts was interrupted by scuffling he heard outside of his room. he peeked out of it and saw those knee high heels. <i>she always walked in a poised and if you really look into it, very strict manner.</i></p><p>naegi waited until she was farther along the hallway. he opened the door and exited stealthily. he walked until he reached the wall where the cafeteria’s door was. he crept into the doorway, which was open and heard two distinct voices, </p><p>“ah enoshima, always early.”</p><p>“you’re sure as hell i am!” there’s a sound of what seems like a chair skidding through the floor, “i never got to say it, but i meant what i said last night.” </p><p>there was a couple moments of silence. until ishimaru cleared his throat and spoke, “yeah. thanks to you i realized i’m cute.” </p><p>there was a variety of chuckles heard and naegi could feel himself to physically sink. <i>now wasn’t the time the time to mope around, stand up.</i> and so he did. </p><p>he walked into the scene to see a slightly flustered ishimaru and enoshima sitting faced to the backrest of the chair facing the prefect. <i>ah.</i></p><p>“good morning, naegi!” ishimaru noticed the boy entering, trying to make himself presentable by shaking off the obvious redness of his face. enoshima just looked back at naegi, there’s an ominous smirk on her face, “good morning, mako.” </p><p>“good morning, junkie.” naegi slyly said as he took his seat across from her. the two were already giving audible grunts at each other and it wasn’t even 8am yet. </p><p>“<i>oh.</i>” ishimaru was fiddling in his chair until he decided to get up, “uhm.. i’ll just go get the others, alright?”</p><p>neither of them even gave a glance at the prefect, so he walks out of the cafeteria and shuts the door. </p><p>ishimaru is speeding down the hallway, <i>why is nobody here yet?</i> he already reached the end of the dorms, nothing. he kept walking and walking in circles, eyes firmly on the floor. this was driving him mad. </p><p>without much thought he snarls at himself for hating that he left and couldn’t handle social pressure or being in drama at all. </p><p>“woah, woah. easy there, president.” it was owada. ishimaru looked up to see a concerned look from him, “owada! thank god.” he sighs in relief, practically dragging him to the cafeteria, “please, let’s head to the meeting.”</p><p>the gangster was confused as to why ishimaru was so distressed, let alone see him in the halls doing nothing. </p><p>ishimaru barges in, as per usual, but a scene unfolds beneath their eyes, making their jaws drop. </p><p>to see naegi so aggravated was a sight enough to set them off, but seeing him standing on the table with enoshima as they snarled at each other was another story. naegi’s teeth was gritting, enoshima was stifling a punch. </p><p>“HEY! THIS IS TOLERATED ABSOLUTELY <i>NOWHERE.</i>” </p><p>even if ishimaru hates being in drama, he was good at breaking up fights. his stern voice coupled with his dictator demeanor at times was very unsettling. </p><p>the pair wordlessly looked at the boys by the doorway. </p><p>“can’t you guys end your petty fight? or for the sake of the class, not drag everybody else down?” </p><p>they were silent. for a moment, they looked at each other in the eyes, not bothering to look away. naegi already knew what enoshima was thinking, and so did she. wordlessly, they nodded at each other and retreated back to their seats. </p><p>ishimaru mumbles a small “thank you.”, which earns him a pat on the back from owada. for what it’s worth, this gave the gangster a whole new respect for the prefect. he knows how to keep shit in order and realized that his proposals weren’t that unnecessary to begin with. </p><p>around ten minutes later, everyone was there. the tension in the air was significantly less, considering naegi and enoshima managed to keep whatever the fuck was going on between them to themselves. </p><p>nothing much else was discussed in the meeting, let alone of significance, except that celestia had a proposal. </p><p>“since ishimaru has been the only one working to maintain order here, i have a proposal.” </p><p>this gains the attention of everyone in the room. </p><p>“now what would that be?” kirigiri looks up at the gambler, arms crossed. </p><p>“ah. always the eager one, aren’t we, kirigiri?” celestia gives her a devilish smirk, gaze not leaving the other girl’s eyes. moments pass, they’re still staring at each other, not caring for making everyone else wait. </p><p>“can’t you two just fuck already?” owada was getting impatient, “i don’t need this sexual tension in my fucking cafeteria.”</p><p>“<i>your</i> cafeteria?” this earns the gangster a spiteful response from enoshima. </p><p>“then <i>our</i> cafeteria.”</p><p> “this is no one’s cafeteria! i don’t need this communism.” enoshima rolls her eyes, earning her a snarl from owada. </p><p>“comma— what?”</p><p>“woulda look at that! he doesn’t even know what communism is.” hagakure lets out a hearty laugh, leaning back in his seat. </p><p>“r/accidentalcommunism.” naegi gives a tsk and a dorky finger gun back at owada, his gaze steady on enoshima. the pair are stifling chuckles as everybody else looked at them in confusion. </p><p>“<i>i thought they weren’t on good terms?</i>” asahina whispers to ogami, “<i>i never took them as the warrior type.</i>”</p><p>meanwhile for celestia and kirigiri, they’re still staring at each other, “are you guys done with all the bullshit?” </p><p>most of them didn’t even realize that the pair hadn’t move a flinch from their position. </p><p>celestia was the one to break the gaze, “i propose a nighttime rule.”</p><p>“a what?” owada relaxes in his seat. </p><p>“a nighttime rule, where you can’t be out of your dorm by 10pm. although it cannot be enforced like the school rules, it’s going to need everybody’s consent and cooperation.”</p><p>“the fuck do we need that for?” the gangster squints his eyes at the gambler. </p><p>“why? for everyone’s protection of course!” celestia gives a small smile, her eyes disappearing. </p><p>“why bring it up now?” togami finally speaks up, his eyes are closed as if he’d been sleeping this whole time. </p><p>“i haven’t had the opportunity to do so myself. not with our first meeting, where yamada was to be crucified, and certainly not with last night when everybody ganged up on me and my dear detective.” <i>my dear detective.</i> kirigiri was desperate in maintaining her composure, a smile was threatening creep into her face. <i>no.</i> she slipped her mask back on. although it seems as though celestia caught on as she was back staring at her this whole time and gave her a timely eyebrow raise and smirk, “now, how about it?”</p><p>everybody seems to agree and ishimaru perks up, “then it’s settled. no one should be out of their dorms by nighttime.”</p><p>before they knew it, the morning meeting turned into some kind of pass-along storytelling within the table. </p><p>in brief, owada was the first to speak up and began telling the tale of how he even got scouted. </p><p>then there was togami, of many siblings that somehow, despite not being the oldest and being the youngest, out of every single one of them, he was chosen. </p><p>fukawa was abroad in europe when she was scouted with her award winning romance novels. </p><p>ishimaru was the grandson of the prime minister and that was that. </p><p>it was one of fujisaki’s programs that attracted the school to lead her. she allegedly got a handle of the government’s classified files and actually got recruited as an agent. </p><p>hagakure was living on the streets, but was the best fortune teller there was with one correct vision is to two incorrect ones. </p><p>kuwata lead countless of baseball series to victory by basically playing as every role in the field. </p><p>maizono was pray and tell, she was the lead and fan favorite in her pop idol group and she’s known virtually worldwide, despite the almost dichotomous opinions of the group. </p><p>enoshima junko was a household name. she was a fad that everybody loved and only grew more when she created her own clothing line. </p><p>yamada won countless trivia contests and was considered to the literal weeb king. he even quote, <i>solved the five nights at freddy’s franchise</i>, unquote. </p><p>ogami was actually visited personally while she was living in the mountains. </p><p>asahina won countless olympic tournaments; was breaking them here and there and is considered to be the guinness world records’ darling. </p><p>in the gambling world, everybody knew of the name celestia ludenberg, a gambler with an inexplicable high rolling streak and was known as the queen of liars. </p><p>naegi was the lucky student selected and scouted by the school. </p><p>out of everyone, the only one who couldn’t tell how they were scouted was kirigiri. she couldn’t remember why she was in hope’s peak academy to begin with, but she managed to shrug it off with a bluff. </p><p>it was already around nine o’clock and nobody had even bothered to get any food, until hagakure stood on the table and asked, “what do y’all fuckers wanna eat? because i’m starving!” </p><p>“sit back to your chair, pothead. no feet on the table.” enoshima nonchalantly said leaning back on her chair. this earns her curious looks from naegi, ishimaru, and owada from their incident earlier, “ah. nevermind. do whatever you want.” the model retracts her statement, instead earning confused looks from everybody else. </p><p>surprisingly of all people, naegi, breaks the awkward silence, “yeah, i’m hungry too.” he looks back at enoshima and was greeted by a sympathetic smile. </p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>the school day went on as normal and before they knew it, it was already nearing 8pm. </p><p>there was the usual scene of ishimaru being early alongside with enoshima. not long after, everyone was already there. </p><p>in the last three days inside this school, the most significant pieces of intel was already found on the first day itself. </p><p>occasionally, naegi would look at the shudders blocking the stairs and wonder what could be there. it was getting dull. like what has happened in the past few days, time was flying and the meeting came to an end. </p><p>as per usual everybody headed to their respective dorms with the exception of the disgustingly arguably cute couple, kuwata and maizono. tonight, they settled in the former’s. </p><p>the eery sound of the bell was heard signaling nighttime. the monitor opened to feature a very bored monokuma tapping his paws on the table, “good evening, children. it is now 10pm. some facilities in the building are now closed as well as water will be halted. sleep well.” his voice was unsettlingly unenthusiastic, devoid of his usual cheery tone or even with his aggravated voice. it was dull, unsettling. </p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>once again the screen opens for the third time today. it was 11:42pm and his voice was yet again very cheery, “good evening again, children! please head to the gym for an important announcement! don’t be a snob and even think about just sleeping through. you wouldn’t want to miss this out for the world!” the monitor closes. </p><p>“ugh. <i>perfect.</i> just when i actually was drifting off to sleep.” naegi ruffles his hair in frustration. he drags himself out of his dorm with a couple of his classmates in the dim hallway. he didn’t bother even interacting with them, as all he cared about was his sleep. </p><p>he enters the gym and was greeted with dim lights and monokuma giddily jumping on the podium. </p><p>“the fuck did you call us for? you don’t know what people could be doing around here.” kuwata was holding a pillow by his crotch. </p><p>
  <i>disgusting.</i>
</p><p>“shut up, goatee. i don’t even wanna hear nor see whatever the fuck you were doing with sayaka..” monokuma visibly shivers as his voice grows weak. </p><p>“WHAT? WHAT DO YO—“</p><p>“anyway children! i’ve been <i>beary,</i>”</p><p>“how distasteful.” togami huffs and yawns. as per usual, fukawa was by his side as he slyly puts his slightly exaggerated arm on the author’s shoulders. </p><p>“you think you’re slick, but you aren’t.” monokuma’s voice slightly plummets out of his cheery tone, “but that doesn’t matter right now!” he pulls out of what seems like a bundle of envelopes. </p><p><i>is that, my name?</i> naegi squints as he reads, <i>naegi makoto</i>, printed on the white envelope. it seems as though everybody has one. his suspicion was confirmed when monokuma spread the envelopes out by his hand revealing fourteen other envelopes. </p><p>“my dear children, i am very bored of you all. despite your petty dramas and <i>lovey-dovey moments,</i>” he seems to shudder a bit, “it was entertaining for a while, if i had to admit. but everything seems like it’s the same shit all over again!”</p><p>“can you just get over it? this interrupted my beauty sleep.” enoshima’s eyes were barely open as she stifles a yawn. </p><p>naegi was admiring her from afar. something about enoshima devoid of her usual attire was somehow familiar to him, but not really. instead he focused on her stunted stature, of how short she looks without her heels. he finds it rather endearing. <i>granted she’s taller than me either way.</i></p><p>“oh why sure, my dear! long story short, to be frank, i despairingly hope you, children, would end up on my blacklist!” monokuma throws the envelopes out in the open. as the envelopes were falling, almost no one could’ve guessed what was waiting for them.</p><p><br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>
  <i>“ah. about fucking finally! woulda just wook at thoves witol faces of desbear?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“cut the aegyo.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“what? aren’t we japanese?”</i>
</p><p> <i>“my bad. cut the weeb shit.”</i></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. parade of icarus</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>as the envelopes were falling, naegi jumps and manages to get his midair. <i>naegi makoto.</i> he opens the envelope to reveal an intricately folded paper with the words, <i>two truths, one lie.</i></p><p><i>what?</i> eagerly naegi unfolds the paper. he drops it to the ground. he had a face of horror, mouth slightly open, as he wordlessly stood there. he observes his surroundings to find his classmates’ reactions were not far from his. </p><p>of course there were levels. one, that would be those with a bit of a shock to their face, but managed to keep their composure. <i>i never understood how those fuckers could always keep a straight face at absolutely everything.</i></p><p>two, were those who with an arguably normal reaction. that would be those whose faces were visibly unsettled. it was clear to everyone that they were very much aggravated, but not to the extent of the other third group. </p><p>three, were those with violent reactions that ranges from incoherent screaming to unnecessary violence to flat out slapping themselves to quote, <i>wake up</i>, unquote. </p><p>needless to say, everyone was terrified and monokuma was enjoying every single moment of it. he stood there, laughing and taking pleasure with their despairing, sometimes literal, cries. </p><p>for a while, the gym was quiet. naegi still stood there, unmoving, completely forgetting that he was frustrated with his interrupted sleep, instead replaced with this terrorizing, of what he could deduce, motive. </p><p>the luckster looks down at the floor and reads what the paper again to make sure what he read was correct. </p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <i>two truths, one lie</i>
  </b>
  <i></i>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <i>naegi komaru is dead</i>
</p><p>
  <i>your father is dead</i>
</p><p>
  <i>your mother is dead</i>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <i>want to know which is which? find out <span class="u">after</span> graduation!</i>
</p><p> </p><p>“fuck.” was what everyone in the room universally said. </p><p><i>i am fucked. this could only mean that only either my sister, father, or mother is alive.</i> naegi can’t recall any kind of sicknesses or illnesses his family ever had. some would say, they have great genes. he couldn’t bare the thought of three of the people who he’d spent his entire life with was d— <i>let’s not go there right now.</i> he shrugs it off. <i>for now.</i></p><p><i>we are royally fucked. if for some ever reason, i get targeted, i’d finally live up to my title. thereof being a 1/14 chance.</i> naegi laughs bitterly. <i>ah, but my only talent is to be optimistic. 1/14 seems low enough, right?</i></p><p>the luckster always used this trick to stay optimistic, weighing out the possibilities. as for someone you’d deem as frail, you’d think he’d be the easiest to eliminate, but some would argue otherwise. <i>if i survive the night, i would live up to my title.</i></p><p>“what kind of bullshit is this?” anger was striking asahina, tears were threatening to fall. ogami takes notice and walks up to her, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. the swimmer looks up, seeing who the hand belonged to, her face immediately softens. </p><p>“it’s not bullshit, my dear. i’d never give a false motive!” </p><p><i>fuck. so i was right, a motive.</i> naegi became more visibly unnerved. <i>a motive to kill. surely we’d all still be alive to see tomorrow’s light of day or whatever lighting we have here, right..?</i></p><p>“m-master monokuma? may i ask where you got this from?” it was a from yamada, he seems to have calmed down from all of his incoherent screaming. </p><p>“hmmmmm. honestly i don’t think that’s what matters right now.” monokuma exaggerating at dazing at the ceiling with a paw on his chin, “from what i see right now, i can already tell some of you are already planning something!” the bear threatening to point at someone, “ah there it is! i knew it.” his gaze doesn’t land on someone specific, but he was sure they knew. </p><p>the class looks at one another in confusion, although a certain face was indifferent from everybody. <i>kirigiri.</i> naegi approaches the girl, she doesn’t bother taking notice of the luckster, “hey kirigiri?” the detective looks behind her shoulder and gives a simple eyebrow raise.</p><p>“i can’t help, but notice how i think you already know something.” kirigiri turns to face the luckster, “i guess there’s no point in denying it right now, but in deducting everybody’s faces, i have a hunch on who’s going to take action.” </p><p>naegi falters slightly, he wasn’t expecting that, “wait, you got that from <i>this? alone?</i> considering everybody’s reactions are relatively the same, it’s quite hard to believe you got that from a simple look.”</p><p>“no, no. of course not.” naegi gives her an eager face, expecting an answer, “if you observe everybody’s slightly different mannerisms, body language, and their interactions with everybody, you’d see who’s out of place.” </p><p>the luckster’s face was even more confused, “y-you got <i>that</i> much of everyone in,” he looks at the clock, <i>11:48</i>, “merely four days?”</p><p>kirigiri simply nods, “i got to admit though, naegi, you’re more perceptive than i thought.”</p><p>he doesn’t know how to take that backhanded compliment, instead he gives a small smile of gratitude. </p><p>interrupting naegi’s train of thoughts were two sets of all too familiar clacking of heels headed towards the pair. they simultaneously look behind their shoulders </p><p>“celestia.”</p><p>“enoshima.”</p><p>it was an odd sight for sure. seeing the gambler alongside with anyone (with the exception of kirigiri, although sometimes it still brings unwanted attention) was in of itself uncanny. but to see her with enoshima, of all people, was even more unsettling. </p><p>“bonsoir, detective.” </p><p>“what’s up, shithead?”</p><p>naegi shot a face of confusion, unconsciously mumbling, “uh, good? <i>i guess.</i>” kirigiri simply stares back at celestia and nods. </p><p>“i guess that’s it for the night, children! i won’t be holding you in here for long.” monokuma giddily jumps on the podium, arms flailing in the air, “i’ll be waiting~!” he jumps off and disappears. </p><p>“how in the actual <i>fu—</i> AGH!” hagakure’s aching jaw interrupts himself. </p><p>“if it still hurts, why would you slap yourself to <i>wake up?</i>” asahina perks up, giving the clairvoyant a disapproving look. </p><p>“i don’t know! how am i supposed to <i>fu—</i> <b>AGH!</b>” he falls to the ground, hugging his legs. </p><p>“stop saying <i>fuck</i>, you dipstick.” owada snarls, approaching the boy. </p><p>“i’ll carry him.” ishimaru walks faster, getting ahead of the gangster. owada helps the prefect lift hagakure up the other boy’s shoulders.</p><p>“why should i stop saying <i>fu—</i> AGH NEVERMIND.” hung on the prefect’s shoulders, he screams once again, “WHAT IS WITH THAT WORD?”</p><p>“it’s with the way you say <i>fuck</i>, that slightly stresses your lower jaw more than any other word you say.” kirigiri nonchalantly says, earning the attention of everybody. </p><p>“fuck.”</p><p>“<i>fuck.</i>”</p><p>“<b>fuck</b>.”</p><p>“FUCK!”</p><p>“<i>FOCK!</i>”</p><p>“fujisaki, language!” it was from owada, who in turn, the programmer simply gives a curious look, “i can’t say fuck, but you can?”</p><p>“abso-fucking-lutely.”</p><p>fujisaki, defeated, slumps toward the gangster, giving him an uncharacteristically low pitched snarl. </p><p>“woah, woah. hold up there for a bit, hiro.” owada was as surprised as everybody else with the programmer’s snarl, he raises his arms in the air as if he’s surrendering. </p><p>“hey, it’s not like i pointed a gun at you!” fujisaki laughs, seemingly back to her usual cheery demeanor. </p><p>“hAH! now guess who finally got their karma? oh thank <i>fu—</i> AGH! WHY DOES IT KEEP DOING THAT?” hagakure screams at ishimaru’s ear, causing him to tug the clairvoyant, making him almost fall off the prefect’s shoulders. </p><p>“alright, alright, we get it. stop saying fuck.” togami scoffs in annoyance. </p><p>“HEY! YOU SAID <i>FU—</i> <b>AGGGGGGGGH!</b> OKAY I’LL STOP!” hagakure perks up, struggling to stay hung on ishimaru’s shoulders. </p><p>“all right, i say this is getting quite ridiculous.” celestia scoffs to which enoshima unconsciously mimics with an eye roll. </p><p>“just shut up already!” the scion grunts, his arms on his chest, “this isn’t the time to be, <b>ironically</b>, fucking around. we are stuck in this game for god knows how long and all you people could say is fuck this, fuck that! well, to <i>that</i> i say, i’m leaving.” he turns his back and heads to the door. </p><p>“byakuya..” fukawa catches up and steps in front of the scion with pleading eyes, “calm down.” she reaches for his hand. in response, he almost tugs it away, but seeing those downcast eyes, how could he resist her? </p><p>“toko,” togami’s expression was sad, but his voice was stern, “let go of me.” fukawa’s face falters, her eyes threatening for waterworks to fall. </p><p>“please.” the scion’s voice was still adamant, but you could hear the desperation reeking. the author lets go of his hand and he walks away. </p><p>fukawa was hesitant whether to follow him or to let him be, until ishimaru, still carrying hagakure, shakes his head. he leaves as well. the author follows after him. </p><p>meanwhile, everyone else just stood and watch the scene unfold beneath their eyes. </p><p>“hey,” kuwata inches his face to maizono, who seems to be locked in a daze of insensibility. worriedly, the all star lightly shakes the idol’s shoulder, trying to get her attention, “hey, saya?”</p><p>“ah—“ she escapes her mind and was brought back to reality, “yes, leonie?” she’s trying to shake it off that she <i>wasn’t</i> dozing off. </p><p>“let’s head back to our room, okay?” he reaches out for her hand. with the slightest touch of their to be adjoined hands, she jerks it right off. </p><p>“i-is there something wrong?” kuwata asks with the uncertainty he did something wrong, he backs off slightly, almost violently tugs his hand back. </p><p>“no.” maizono firmly says, standing her ground, “there isn’t.” she grabs the all star’s hand with an unnerving grip. </p><p>kuwata didn’t respond, instead he nods and exits the gym with her. </p><p>meanwhile, yamada creepily follows closely after them, presumably to spy on them or whatever. </p><p>“what’s with those two?” enoshima snaps her fingers in such a way it turns to her pointing at the pair, “and with that guy.” and did it again pointing at the other. </p><p>“with them?” naegi teasingly mimics enoshima’s hand twice. </p><p>“what the fuck is with this pair switch?” owada visibly shudders, “it’s very unsettling. <i>turn it</i> back!” he covers his eyes. </p><p>“does he really think we’d switch back if he covers his eyes like that?” naegi slightly tilts his head. </p><p>“ah, well. we had our fun.” celestia reaches her hand to enoshima’s chin and gives it a small flick, “might as well comply with his wishes.” the gambler shrugs as if it was completely normal, with the trio had their own brands of exasperation. at least, those were visibly obvious in naegi and enoshima’s. kirigiri’s, however, told another. </p><p>“detective,” even with celestia’s constant use of detective, it still manages to crack kirigiri’s mask of composure. turning to a blind eye to the slightest differences in mannerism, you’d never see it. the gambler always observed kirigiri, to the extent you’d consider it as eery, not that she cared anyway. she’d paid so much attention she always noticed slight clenching of her gloved hands, to which celestia had grown quite a fondness for, wondering what could be hiding beneath the leather. </p><p>“you’re coming with me.” the gambler walks up to the detective, turning her around by the arm, facing the exit. </p><p>“oh my god.” naegi and enoshima uncoincidentally, by this time it was expected, say simultaneously.</p><p>“wait, what did i miss?!” owada removes his hand from his eyes to see kirigiri and celestia halfway by the exit already. </p><p>“<i>aw, puhu.</i>” enoshima mockingly fake cries at the gangster, “what a shame for you.”</p><p>“you just missed the single most slickest move i’d ever seen.” naegi’s eyes follows the pair intensely until they left. </p><p>“oh yeah, <i>definitely.</i>” fujisaki nods almost aggressively. </p><p>“same here.” asahina’s eyes still on the doors. </p><p>“by far, yes.” ogami closes her eyes, presumably to take in what just happened, and nods. </p><p>“aight, i had enough for the night. imma head back.” enoshima shrugs, taking naegi with her by his ear, “and you’re coming with me.” </p><p>the pair walks out, naegi visibly confused and grunts in pain. he’s trying to protest, but he fails to, and they exit. </p><p>“the fuck was that about?” owada stares blankly at them. </p><p>“i don’t know, either. in that case, i’ll be leaving too.” fujisaki follows them. </p><p>“oy, if yer leaving, don’t leave me out.” the gangster catches up to the programmer. </p><p>in the gym, only ogami and asahina were left. the swimmer looks at the fighter, “sakura?” she looks back at her and gives a small, “hm?”</p><p>“i-is it okay if i stay in your room tonight?” asahina asks with pleading eyes, “i’m scared i won’t come out alive through the night.”</p><p>“you will be when you stay with me.” ogami gives her a reassuring smile, “i’ll protect you.”</p><p>asahina, slightly surprised she willingly accepted and even offered to protect her. she mumbles a small, but audible, “thank you.” and wraps her arms around the other. ogami happily gives it back. </p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>the loud, but gentle chiming of the bell was heard throughout the whole floor. </p><p>“<i>ugh.</i>” naegi grunts, rubbing his eyes open as he sits up on his bed. </p><p>“good morningggggggg, children! as you can see, i am exceptionally despairingly happy today!” the monitor opens to reveal monokuma holding a bottle of soju and a filled shot glass. </p><p>“<i>ngh</i>, who would even drink at this early morning?” the luckster massages his forehead, almost forgetting the events of last night. </p><p>“all facilities are resumed and all closed off sectors are now open for your pleasure!” the bear giddily drinks what’s inside the shot glass and refills it almost immediately, “<i>puhuhuhuhuhuhu!</i>” and the monitor closes. </p><p>“what is <i>with</i> him today?” naegi sits on the edge of his bed. <i>edge. edge, we were all on edge last night.</i> he lightly knocks his head, trying to remember. </p><p>“AH! THE MOTIVE.” the luckster, with the sudden jolt of energy in his body, he falls off. his face and body laying flat on the floor, he doesn’t bother to stand up, “ah, just my luck. at least i’m alive.” he lays flat on the ground. </p><p>“yay.” he lightly wriggles his wrists unenthusiastically, and soon he drifts back to sleep. </p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>“NAEGI! NAEGI!” a distant voice was heard and a loud impatient knocking was ringing throughout the whole room. </p><p>“KIRIGIRI, AS A DETECTIVE, I BELIEVE SOMEONE LIKE YOU CAN PICK A LOCK.” it was a voice he recognized, it was ishimaru’s. </p><p>“although i do know how to, these doors are made as such that the locks can’t be picked open. and no, i am not a detective.” <i>kirigiri.</i></p><p>“BUT THAT’S WHAT CELESTE CALLS YOU, RIGHT?”</p><p>“correct, but i am not.”</p><p>“but you are, detective.” <i>that’s celeste.</i> he could recognize that french accent from anywhere. </p><p>there came another voice coupled with even more impatient knocking, “NAEGI MAKOTO, <i>DON’T</i> YOU DARE DIE ON ME!” it was from someone he recognized, enoshima. </p><p>naegi struggles to stand up, so he just crawls towards the door, aggravatingly slow. he looks up at his clock, 8:23am. </p><p>“NAEGI MAKOTO, I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD IF YOU’RE DEAD,” <i>enoshima.</i></p><p>“OPEN THE DOOR, NAEGI.” <i>ishimaru.</i></p><p>the knocking became even more impatient and soon it turns to aggressive kicking as the two voices echoed through the door, “NAEGI.” <i>enoshima and ishimaru.</i></p><p>he reaches the door and knocks on it lightly, “<i>hngg.</i>” </p><p>“OH MY GOD, MAKO!” <i>enoshima.</i></p><p>“NAEGI, YOU’RE NOT DEAD!” <i>ishimaru.</i></p><p>“my suspicions were correct.” <i>kirigiri.</i></p><p>“as expected of the ultimate lucky student.” <i>celeste.</i></p><p>audible sighs of relief were heard through the door as naegi slumps to open the door, kneeling, “yes?” was all he said, his eyes lazily closed, before being engulfed by an embrace. </p><p>he opens his eyes, <i>enoshima.</i> his body slightly tenses as the model buries her head in his neck. by this time, he’s fully awake, and hugs her back. </p><p>“don’t you fucking dare die on me, makoto.” enoshima mumbles against his neck. </p><p>“i’m not dead, junko. i just overslept, that’s all.” he said softly and in turn, the girl tightens her embrace. he lightly brushes her hair. </p><p>“as much as i hate to ruin this moment, but,” the speakers became static for a split second and the even more ominous same chime of bells echoes through the halls. <i>monokuma.</i></p><p>“<i>a body has been discovered!</i>” </p><p>naegi breaks from their embrace to see ishimaru, kirigiri, and celestia by kuwata’s door. he takes enoshima’s hand and intertwines them together as they stood up. </p><p>“after a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin!”</p><p>the luckster leads enoshima towards the door. </p><p>“AGH!” naegi halts and unconsciously steps backwards at the sight. his hand gives up on enoshima’s as he trips on his steps and hits his head on the wall behind him, knocking himself unconscious. </p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>“<i>argh.</i>” naegi instinctively sits up amd clutches the back of his head, attempting to massage the throbbing pain on his head, only for it to hurt even more. he felt the cloth wrapped around his head. he grazes his hand to his forehead, furrowing at the touch of the cloth. </p><p>“mako.” </p><p>it was that all too familiar voice again. he turns to his side to see junko pulling his hand away from his face. <i>pink.</i></p><p>“junko.” he sits by the edge of his bed, to see that he’s in his room with a few bandages and disinfectants by the bedside table, “how long was i out?” as he gently shakes his head to regain his vision. </p><p>“not that long, actually. it’s barely 9 o’clock, 847.” </p><p>naegi stands up to walk, but junko instinctively grabs his arm causing him to halt, “you should rest for a bit more.” </p><p>“no, no. i have to come for whoever killed kuwata and maizono.” </p><p>“a-actually,” naegi looks behind his shoulder to face enoshima, “maizono survived, but she’s unconscious.” the luckster gives a curious look at the girl still holding onto his arm, it was uncharacteristic for enoshima to stutter, but he puts that thought on hold. she continues, “and, t-they think you’re the culprit.”</p><p><i>ah. just my luck.</i> naegi turns around, making junko drop his arm. he recollects the events that had happened. </p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>
  <i>as he stood there, he couldn’t bare what was in front of him. seeing what was beyond ishimaru, kirigiri, and celestia, there were two bodies slumped against the wall. the first one, there was kuwata. the wall behind him had a trail of dried blood to his head. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>naegi steps falters for a bit, then he saw the side of maizono’s head bloodied, as she laid her slumped head on kuwata’s lap. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>the luckster trips and gives up on enoshima’s hand. and everything went black.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>“but i’m <i>not</i> the culprit.” </p><p>“i know you’d never do such a thing, but they just won’t believe me!” enoshima’s bites down on her lip, fighting to keep the frustration in. </p><p>“it’s not me.” naegi reaches out for her hand. he lightly squeezes her hand. it was a simple gesture, but it was enough to ease her anxiety. </p><p>naegi gives one last sad smile, “we’re going to avenge the fallen, junko.” he lets go and heads out of the room.</p><p><br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>
  <i>“this is bullshit. i gave you one condition and you didn’t even abide by it.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“what? it’s not my fault they think it’s him.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“i don’t care! i gave you one condition. one.”</i>
</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. “i am not the one to take chances.”</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i’m so sorry this took me five days:( i’ve been experiencing writer’s block and honestly i felt a bit burnt out so i needed a couple of days away, not writing. but nonetheless, the awaited class trial will be next chapter. and i just want to give a quick thank you for all the kudos and the support from the comments! it really gives a smile to my face:) also timezones suck,</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>naegi exits his room to see owada and ogami guarding kuwata’s door. </p><p>“hey,” the luckster walks up to the doorway causing owada and ogami simultaneously inch closer to each other, blocking his path. his patience was thinning, although he managed to keep it to himself. </p><p>he peeps through the empty space between the pair, to see kirigiri crouched over kuwata’s slumped body, “kirigiri!” he gains the attention of the detective, although she doesn’t look back, “naegi, come on in.” </p><p>owada and ogami step away, granting him access. naegi steps forward, to see kirigiri holding a notebook, writing. </p><p>“so, uhm..” naegi trails off, hoping to get the attention of the girl, but to no avail, “does everybody think i’m the killer?” </p><p>“to put it simply, you were absent for our morning meeting along with kuwata and maizono. ishimaru was worried that something had happened because you were thirty minutes late.” kirigiri settles her notebook on the floor and handles kuwata’s head gently. </p><p>naegi shudders a bit. <i>i don’t understand how easy it is for her to handle corpses.</i></p><p>“ishimaru, with his time conscious ass, went to check.” she slightly leans his head forward and ruffles his blood damped hair. </p><p>
  <i>jesus. the blood is sticking to his hair.</i>
</p><p>“by this time, my intuition kicked in, i knew someone died, so i went with him.” she almost <i>caresses</i> back of kuwata’s head and it seems there’s a few prominent bumps that’s quite hard not to notice. </p><p>
  <i>judging by the swelling at the back of his head, i imagine he’d been hit by the wall multiple times.</i>
</p><p>“celeste? i’m pretty sure she just wanted to bug me.” she stands and gazes at the blood trail by the wall kuwata was slumped on, but what catches her eye was another blotch of blood splattered on the wall. </p><p>
  <i>i can’t quite imagine how painful it must feel to be hit against the wall so hard, you bleed to death.</i>
</p><p>“how does this even link you at all?” kirigiri finally faces naegi, giving her an eager, but anxious face, “there were blood stains on the carpet by your door.” </p><p>“a,” </p><p>“naegi,” kirigiri takes a step closer to the luckster, he looks like he’s about to scream. </p><p>“A,”</p><p>“i have no final verdict yet whether on who to pin the blame on, calm down.” she’s wary about naegi’s enlarged eyes as horror begins to engulf his face. </p><p>“<i>AA</i>,”</p><p>“i highly doubt you’re the killer and i’ve yet to examine other places where the culprit might have gone, so please calm down, you’re only evoking more unwanted attention for yourself.” by this time, kirigiri’s hands were on the luckster’s shoulders lightly shaking him, in hopes he’d get his shit together. </p><p>“<b>AAA</b>,” his screams were louder than ever, it echoes through the room back and forth causing a disturbance outside the room. the pair who’s guarding the door, their attentions were now to the screaming boy. </p><p>“naegi, i am so sorry.” </p><p>“<i><b>AAAA</b></i>—“ </p><p>naegi’s screams were replaced with muffled sounds as if he was eating something. it took him a while before he realized he was tasting leather. <i>kirigiri’s glove.</i></p><p>he coughs, almost choking from the hand inside his mouth. kirigiri retracts her hand, “the best way to shut someone up is by stuffing their mouth with cloth.” </p><p>naegi was about to protest, “i—“ </p><p>she interrupts him and flicks her hand to remove the excess saliva, “unfortunately covering your mouth won’t do me good, might as well shove it in.” </p><p>another voice enters the room, “i can confirm.” it was owada. </p><p>“a-ah,” </p><p>“there wasn’t blood on my gloves, don’t worry.” </p><p>before naegi could protest again, the monitor switched on, “hello children! now that everybody’s awake, please head to the gym as soon as you can for a few special announcements.” and it closes. </p><p>“is he fucken serious, right now? there’s a dead body and another is seriously injured and he wants us to get together in the gym?!” owada snarls, his hands slowly turning to fists. </p><p>“we don’t have a choice, but to follow his orders.” kirigiri dusts off her skirt and signals naegi to follow her. </p><p>“owada, you don’t want be crucified like yamada, right?” ogami steps aside granting a small space of entrance, but the gangster doesn’t move, still blocking the rest of the door. </p><p>“fine. if both of you agree, then so will i.” he steps aside, letting kirigiri and naegi out. </p><p>the luckster has yet to comprehend what just happened as he blindly follows kirigiri’s lead. </p><p>
  <i>my family’s dead. a classmate of mine is dead, one is severely injured and i am to be blamed. ahahahahahaha..</i>
</p><p>they walk through the halls, as kirigiri looks behind her shoulder, noticing naegi dozing off with a worrisome face. </p><p><i>not to mention just how</i> lucky <i>i can get. i’ve tripped myself unconscious for fuck’s sake! ahahahaha.. this is fine.</i></p><p>kirigiri pays more attention to the boy tailing behind her and slows down allowing herself to be beside him. she notices his breathe shallowing by the second. </p><p><i>with just how frustratingly normal i am, i don’t have many talents, not to mention i don’t even have analytical skills to make up of whatever the fuck happened back</i> there.</p><p>the luckster unconsciously clutches his chest, gently pinching his gradually aching ribcage. </p><p><i>if</i>, if <i>i make it out alive, who knows i won’t be targe</i>—</p><p>naegi’s train of thoughts was disrupted by the sudden warmth on his palm coupled with the sensation of something rubbing against his arm. he looks down. </p><p>“kirigiri, i—“ </p><p>without warning, the detective intertwines her fingers with his, giving it a reassuring squeeze, “when i used to get panic attacks, i remember someone always used to hold my hand and gently squeeze it until i calm down.”</p><p>“i..” he redirects his gaze to her face. kirigiri wasn’t looking back at him, instead still facing straight ahead, “..thank you,”</p><p>she gives him another gentle squeeze, seeming to ease the luckster even more. </p><p> </p><p>“i think i’m good now.” naegi softly says as they reach the gym’s doors. kirigiri takes this as a sign to let go of his hand as she kicks the doors open. </p><p>“is that a thing that we <i>just</i> do?” enoshima was eyeing the four who got in. </p><p>“apparently so.” celestia shrugs, “it’s for dramatic effect, i presume?” </p><p>“just try it! it’s actually entertaining to do <i>and</i> watch.” ishimaru perks up with maizono slumped onto his shoulders. </p><p>“now that can be taken out of context way too easily.” maizono lets out a chuckle.</p><p><i>maizono.</i> naegi’s face falters at the sight of her the thick bandage taped to the left temple of her forehead. </p><p>the idol gives the luckster a sympathetic, almost guilty face. <i>i think she knows that i’m not the culprit.</i></p><p>“fucking finally! took you long enough!” it was monokuma, once again appearing on top of the podium. </p><p>
  <i>he seems to have grown quite fond of that podium. i wonder why.</i>
</p><p>“why the fuck did you summon us here when you know someone died? for the headmaster, you’d at least <i>think</i> he’d have even a shred of decency.” owada was growing impatient, the of tapping of his foot was gradually getting faster. </p><p>“<i>huh</i>, how hypocritical of the ultimate <i>delinquent.</i>” monokuma faces the gangster, his red eye glowing. </p><p>“uh, yeah, whatever..” his stature shrinks down, almost reminiscent of how fujisaki curls herself up. </p><p>“how, odd.” little did they know, celestia was once again by kirigiri’s side as she mumbles quietly, “he never seems to falter when anyone <i>else</i> degrades him.” </p><p>naegi notices this, not wanting to be an third awkward wheel, he approaches enoshima. </p><p>“anyway, i gathered all of you here because i never even explained what a class trial is.” monokuma’s attention was now off owada, instead to the class, “when three of you discover a body, a class trial will occur a few hours later upon discovery, which could be used for anything you’d like!” </p><p>“what happens if we get the culprit?” asahina responds, with a furrowed forehead. </p><p>“well, i’d get closer and beat the shit out of them!”</p><p>“you’re not serious about that, right?“ fujisaki asks, fiddling in her steps. </p><p>“of course not, my dear.” </p><p>
  <i>somehow that brought comfort to everybody. even to me.</i>
</p><p>“they’d be punished, of course!”</p><p>“p-punished?” hagakure was somehow still in denial about this being a killing game, “just say that you’re tripping us! a-and we’ll laugh it off, right?”</p><p>“kuwata leon is dead and if you fuckers don’t get the real culprit all of you would be punished, but the culprit and they’d be able to graduate.” </p><p>“WHAT? B-BUT MASTER MONOKUMA, t-that’s a bit unfair, right?” yamada spoke up, sweat falling of his face. </p><p>“i don’t care for <i>fair.</i> i am only going by the rules and for my entertainment. i’m not whatever you call of those self-righteous pricks to dictate what other’s fate would be!” </p><p>“but master monokuma, a-aren’t you just contradicting yourself?” the doujin retorted, using half of his power to not scream. </p><p>“hmmmmmmm,” monokuma exaggerating at rubbing his paw to his chin, “<i>ooh</i>~ now that’s even more despairing!” he jumps up and down giddily, rocking the podium a bit, laughing even. </p><p>everybody stared at the bear in confusion. it seems as though most were digging in too deep into his motives, trying to find a satisfying answer as to why even bother with the trouble to put this scheme into play. </p><p>“i’ll cut to the chase, it’s either everyone else, but the culprit or only the culprit is to be <b>executed</b>!”</p><p>something with the way he said <i>executed</i> brought back the dread and tension from the first time they knew it was a killing game, the first time one of their classmates was punished <i>accordingly</i>, the first time they received the motive. </p><p> </p><p>horrible, <i>dreadful</i>, <b>despair</b>. </p><p> </p><p>“...”</p><p> </p><p>..!</p><p> </p><p>“i can already feel the despair from all you little shits!” monokuma was jumping around giddily on the podium as everybody looked at him in silence. faces of horrid and eyes engulfed with terror was more than enough to make the bear’s eery smile appear and his red eye glow. </p><p>“now, now, scurry off my children! i can’t wait for the despair this is going to bring all of you!” he jumps off the podium, “before i leave, i have a special present for all of you. it’s a file for all of you dimwits not smart enough to hold investigations.” alas, he walks out and disappears. </p><p> </p><p>nobody could say a word. it was quiet. the deafening silence was evading the gym as despair slowly builds up in each of their systems. </p><p>who knows how something so devoid of sound could deafen you?</p><p> </p><p><i>sound.</i> the only sound you could hear was the strained breaths of your classmates. they’re screaming, but you can’t hear it. </p><p> </p><p><i>hear.</i> what else could you hear? the clock, ticking by the second. seconds, minutes, hours. <i>hours.</i></p><p> </p><p>“FUCK WE’RE IN A TIME LIMIT!” naegi was the first to snap out of it. he gains the attention of everyone as one by one they get their shit together. </p><p>“ah, yes. i suppose we are.” celestia regains her composure as she nervously twirls her hair, “now, how about we see whatever <i>special present</i> that yin-yang ripoff left us, no?” </p><p>“no <i>fucking</i> way.” it was hagakure. </p><p>“and why is that?”</p><p>“fucking hell, if i only have a few hours left of my life, i ain’t going to waste it on something i can’t even do.” the clairvoyant was already leaving. </p><p>“just because you regained the ability to speak vulgarities already means you can slack off.” everyone but hagakure turned to the voice, it was togami’s. as a cherrypicked heir that he is, it was undoubtedly obvious he’d have anybody slack off. </p><p>“i don’t care! i won’t do shit anyway. i <i>am</i> useless!” his hand was nearing the doorknob, but stops to listen whatever the scion had to say. </p><p>“you are <i>not</i> going to get off the hook, no matter how much self-deprecation you justify with it.” togami warns him once more, but gets little to no reaction from him. </p><p>“can’t hear ya!” with that, he shuts the door sealed. </p><p>“that little <b>shit</b>.” owada clenches his fists, “i admit i’m not much use with the investigation, but come on! at least i’m <i>trying</i> to be useful.” he beckons ogami with him, “come on ogami, we’re guarding the crime scene.” </p><p>kirigiri huffs in agreement, following the pair. naegi catches up with the detective by the door. </p><p>“i shan’t miss my detective in action.” with this celestia also follows her. to her surprise, the detective stops walking, allowing the gambler to catch up with her, “always the gentleman, are we, detective?” </p><p>“gentleman?” naegi shoots a confused look at the pair. </p><p>“don’t question it. at this point, i don’t even bother anymore.” kirigiri flatly says as they walk through the halls. </p><p>they reach kuwata’s room as ogami and owada guard the doorway. naegi peeps in to see kuwata’s body still intact just the way they left him. </p><p>kirigiri opens her id card, to have celestia and naegi to the same as they entered the room. </p><p>naegi spots something different about the report cards, with kuwata’s replaced with something else. </p><p> </p><p>
  <i>
    <b>the monokuma file</b>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>victim: kuwata leon</i>
</p><p>
  <i>time of death: 1:43am</i>
</p><p>
  <i>cause of death: exsanguination </i>
</p><p>
  <i>place found: kuwata leon’s dorm</i>
</p><p>
  <i>last words: “i deserved this. i’ll always love you, maizono sayaka.”</i>
</p><p> </p><p>“last words,” celestia remarks as she keeps her id card, “what an odd variable to add in.”</p><p>“why would he say he deserved to die?” naegi does the same as he trails off, “that’s, morbid.”</p><p>kirigiri approaches kuwata’s body and handles it gently, “he was hit three different times in the head.” </p><p>“<i>three times?!</i>” <i>but i only see two spots.</i></p><p>“judging by the height of where these blood splatters are, i say these are all his.” the detective points to the back of his head, then to the smaller pink blotch on the wall, “this one, i’d say he’d been pushed against the wall, harsh enough to have him bleed, but not one that would kill him.” </p><p>
  <i>bloody. fuck. it doesn’t match up with how much blood is on the wall. there should be more than that.</i>
</p><p>kirigiri points to the left side of head, “it seems as though he’s been hit by a blunt object at his left side,” she redirects her gaze to the floor, “judging by how much blood is present on his head and by the droplets splattered across the floor,” </p><p>
  <i>i guess that makes sense.</i>
</p><p>she points again at the back of his head, “he’s hit the back of this head twice, the second time being to this uneven trail.” her hand follows the blood trail, “around at this time,” redirecting her hand at the sudden change of of the trail, “he slumps his head to the left.” </p><p><i>ah, that’s why it’s bloodier than i thought it would be.</i> “is that why this part is.. bloodier?” naegi eyes the blood trail, imagining how it came to be. </p><p>“precisely, naegi.” kirigiri stands up. </p><p>“but that doesn’t make sense though, if both of those blood spots on the wall and on the floor were his, how was maizono injured?” </p><p>“perhaps, she was injured at another location?” celestia remarks, putting a hand on her chin, “everyone did see the blood stains on the carpet by your door.” </p><p>“i <i>swear</i> on my life it wasn’t me.” naegi raises his arms, as if he’s surrendering. </p><p>“my, my, dear, i never said it was you.” she chuckles lightly, “shall we head there now?” </p><p>the pair agrees and walks out of the room. although, something else catches the luckster’s eye. there was blood on the outer side of the doorknob. </p><p>
  <i>did the culprit leave this behind?</i>
</p><p> </p><p>they reach naegi’s doorstep, there was indeed blood on his carpet. kirigiri crouches and inspects it.  </p><p>“they’re not old,” the detective trails her hand on the carpet, “but they’re not fresh either.” she retracts her hand and rubs her index finger and thumb together, noticing its consistency, “it’s been here around for 8-9 hours at most.” she glances at the clock, “which puts this at around 1-2am.” </p><p>kirigiri stands up, “all right.” she brushes off her gloves, “i got everything i needed.” </p><p>“what?” </p><p>“i got it.” the detective starts to walk away, dragging celestia by her arm. </p><p>
  <i>she seems so nonchalant about everything, i don’t think i can ever get what it’s like to be her.</i>
</p><p>“i have to admit, that was fast.” celestia remarks as they walk away, “how long did that take? mmmhm, three-four hours?” </p><p>“i can do better.” kirigiri nonchalantly says, not even looking back at the gambler. </p><p>“oh i hardly think you can, detective.” this earns celeste a sly gaze, almost as if she was challenging her. <i>no.</i> she was teasing her. </p><p>“let’s see about that, lucifer.” kirigiri redirects her gaze back to the hall, leaving a sly smirk present on her face. </p><p>“<i>detective.</i>” celestia was flustered, she could feel her mask slipping. <i>no. not now.</i> kirigiri couldn’t have picked a better time to kill her right now. <i>kill.</i> she laughs at that. </p><p> </p><p>“i cannot take this sexual tension in front of my eyes!” owada massages his temples, then shakes his head. </p><p>“hm.” ogami gives another glance at the pair, “i don’t mind.”</p><p>“but <i>i do.</i>” naegi redirects his gaze to those guarding the door. </p><p>“shut up before i beat your ass for causing this in the first place.” the gangster snarls, already cracking his fingers eyeing the luckster to submission. </p><p>“it wasn’t me! you’ve got to at least trust me on that.” the luckster was frustrated, <i>how can i prove my innocence?</i> “ogami, y-you believe me, right?” </p><p>she avoids his gaze, “let’s see about that.”</p><p>
  <i>this won’t do me any good. i should at least find that murder weapon. after all, that’s what kirigiri said, right? he was pushed against the wall, then hit by an object, then again to the wall?</i>
</p><p>he shudders at the thought of the bloody scene, and so he walks away. </p><p><i>i don’t understand how that blood stain ended up on my carpet, nor do i understand why there would be marks on the door knob. it can’t be because they were just</i> that <i>clumsy, right?</i></p><p>while passing by the halls, seeming to be going in circles, he was thinking of possible places to hide a murder weapon. then it hits him, “ah, the storage room!” </p><p>he’s been there prior and it seems like the best place to hide it in, with the stacks upon stacks of boxes, shelves, and mountain high papers inside. </p><p> </p><p>when he arrives at the storage room, there’s an open door with a bloody doorknob, and two familiar faces. </p><p>“togami, fukawa.” </p><p>the scion was examining something, but doesn’t look back at naegi. the author, meanwhile, gives him a sneer look, “yes, culprit?”</p><p>“we don’t know that yet.” togami nonchalantly says as he handles what seems like,</p><p>“is that <i>the</i> bat?” naegi approaches him, careful not to nudge fukawa. </p><p>“yes. it’s exactly that.” togami remarks, eyes still on the metal object. he handles it delicately, careful not to tamper with the blood present on its handle and head. </p><p>the luckster takes a closer look, then noticing something different about its structure, “is that a dent?” he points at where the most blood was accumulated. </p><p>“actually, there are two dents.” togami turns the object slightly and points to one spot, “one,” then points to another area, “two.”</p><p>“kuwata was only hit once by something other than the wall. so is this what hit maizono?”</p><p>“of all people, <i>you</i> should already know that.” fukawa snarls. <i>that was, very uncharacteristic of her.</i></p><p>“toko, keep yourself together.” the scion sternly says, causing her to falter back a bit. </p><p>“thank you, togami. that was very helpful.” he says as he exits the room. </p><p>
  <i>if i’m going to get answers, then i better hear it from one of the victims themselves.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>naegi was walking along the halls and passes by the infirmary. there, he saw maizono sitting by one of the beds. although something else caught his eye.</p><p>
  <i>are those blood stains?</i>
</p><p>he approaches the door. both were wide open as the other side was touching the wall. he pulls it to reveal stains on the other side of the knob. almost immediately, he walks to the other door and reveals both sides were covered. </p><p>
  <i>shit.</i>
</p><p>“naegi, what are you doing?” it was another voice that came from the infirmary. </p><p>“ishimaru,” he was standing right by the shelves. it seems like he’s setting out cloth for her. </p><p>he turns his gaze to the girl, “maizono,” </p><p>she won’t look back. </p><p>“i just want to ask you a few things if that’s alright with you.” naegi walks inside, wary of his surroundings. ishimaru is preparing some kind of cloth with alcohol. </p><p>although, the idol still refuses to acknowledge his existence. </p><p>“naegi, i suggest you leave her alone.” the prefect remarks as he squeezes alcohol to the cloth. </p><p>“but i’ll just only take a few minutes of her time.” he looks around, noticing her bloody hands. he walks towards the idol. </p><p>“naegi,” ishimaru turns around, holding the wet cloth and walks up to her. </p><p>“please, maizono, just one question that’s it.” he inches closer to the bed, desperation reeking out. </p><p>“please respect her wishes.” the prefect was kneeling by the bed. he reaches out for her bloody hands and wipes it off. </p><p>“why wasn’t your blood in the crime scene?”</p><p>“NAEGI!” ishimaru stomps his foot on the floor, startling naegi. </p><p>“<i>out.</i>” the idol grunts. </p><p>“what?” </p><p>“OUT.” maizono, her voice was shrill and stern. it wasn’t something she’d do. </p><p>he backs off, “i’m sorry.”</p><p>and so he leaves. </p><p>
  <i>she should know i’m not the culprit. after all, she was there.. right?</i>
</p><p> </p><p>something about her reluctance to speak with him was hitting him with an idea. a theory. </p><p>
  <i>fuck.</i>
</p><p>he runs back to the storage room to check on something. </p><p>“the doorknob.”</p><p>it was open, he looks at the other side of the door. <i>jackpot.</i></p><p>“more blood.” this earns him two confused stares from the inside. </p><p> </p><p>naegi runs back to kuwata’s room, in a hurry he scurries to get in the room accidentally hitting the pair who’s guarding the scene, “excuse me, i need to check on something.”</p><p>ogami budges, but owada doesn’t look like he’s taking anymore shit, “listen here, fucker. who the fuck are you to tell me what to do?” his patience was thinning as he grabs the luckster by his collar. </p><p>“woah, woah, woah, i didn’t mean to—“ </p><p>“<i>you’re</i> the one who put us in this shit in the <b>first</b> place and you have the GODDAMNED NERVE TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO?!” the gangster lifts him up off the ground. </p><p>naegi struggles, attempting to pull away from his grip, “i am not the one to take chances. i am not going to let that monobrat kill everyone of us just because you shithead stopped me from getting to the truth.” </p><p>“owada.”</p><p>“SHUT UP YOU LITTLE SHIT.” the gangster raises him higher, tightening his grip by the second, “I NEVER SAID YOU COULD SPEAK.” he inches his face closer to his giving him a deathly glare. he tightens his grip, choking the boy. </p><p>“i-i won’t let him k-kill all of you. not on m-my watch.” he said in between breathes and attempts of not suffocating. </p><p>“GIVE ME <b>ONE</b> GOOD REASON <i>NOT</i> TO CRUSH YOUR HEAD.” </p><p>naegi couldn’t speak, he was grasping for air, but he couldn’t get any words out. he only managed to give out unintelligible grunting as he continues to struggle from his tightening grip. </p><p>“OWADA!” sakura snarls back at the gangster, finally getting his attention, “put him down.”</p><p>the gangster gives her a glare, reluctantly, he abruptly releases him from his clutch. naegi lands on his knees and hands, coughing, trying to regain his breath and grip. </p><p>ogami crouches down and helps naegi stand up. it take the luckster a few moments before he could stand again to enter the room. </p><p>“i’m sorry.” he said in between ragged breathes, “i won’t fail you.” </p><p>after that, he didn’t speak another word. </p><p>but he found what he was looking for, <i>blood on both sides of the doorknob.</i></p><p>he exits the room and gives one more glare at the pair. his face was pained, although, he wasn’t angry. he gives a small smile. it was of sympathy. </p><p>then he walks away. </p><p> </p><p>“hello children! the time given for your own investigations has expired. please proceed the elevator where the red door, that no one knew what it was for, previously was. it’s time for the class trial!”</p><p><br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>
  <i>“hey.”</i>
</p><p>  <i>“...”</i></p><p>  <i>“hey, talk to me.”</i></p><p>  <i>“...”</i><br/> <br/>  <i>“please talk to me.”</i></p><p>  <i>“...”</i></p><p>
  <i>“okay then,”</i>
</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. write me up apiece</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hi! i’m sorry this took a bit longer than usual. this was a  <b>t h i c c</b>  ass chapter to write. i hope i’d live up to your expectations. thank you to everybody who commented and for all of the kudos! seriously, it motivates me so much, i get inspiration from reading the comments alone. anyway, here’s to chapter 7, the class trial!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“the announcement.” <i>shit.</i> time’s already up, yet naegi still doesn’t have a clear image of what happened. in the last few minutes, the luckster was building up ideas, theories of how it could’ve went down. he wasn’t confident. not in anyway. </p><p>he mentally curses himself over and over again, while walking to the red door monokuma told them to head over. </p><p>
  <i>if there were blood on both sides of the doorknobs, that would mean the culprit got inside. although it doesn’t make sense how they got inside of some, but couldn’t to others.</i>
</p><p>a voice disrupts his train of thoughts, “makoto.” he takes a look behind his shoulder, </p><p>“junko.” </p><p>she caught up to his side, facing the luckster. she wore a worrisome expression on her face, one that you don’t see very often.  </p><p>they walk side by side in silence to the elevator, immediately he was greeted with distasteful looks from his classmates as he enters. with this, the elevator doors close. </p><p>“hey it’s the culprit.” fukawa accusingly points at naegi, causing almost everyone else to roll their eyes at him. </p><p>the luckster humbly bows, “i won’t let you be killed.” he raises his head, “not on my watch.”</p><p>this earns him a few reassuring faces and a lot of disapproving grunts. </p><p>“just shut up already! enough with your <i>not on my watch</i> <b>bullshit</b>.” owada snarls at him, his hands threatening to choke him again. he was at the other side of the elevator, across from naegi, but says who he won’t go for him?</p><p>“it’s not.” </p><p>“I TOLD YER TO SHUT UP, DIDN’T I?” he steps forward, bumping his other classmates in the way. </p><p>“owada!” ishimaru steps forward to block naegi from the gangster with an accompanying loud stomp. </p><p>“get out of my way.” owada eyes the prefect, his fists already loaded. </p><p>“this is not tolerated anywhere.” the prefect lunges forward at him as he snarls back, his demeanor devoid of that light hearted leader everyone knew. </p><p>“shut up, stalin!” the gangster’s fists were so clenched tightly, something seeps out of his knuckles, “move.”</p><p>“no. <i>you</i> back o—“ </p><p>“I SAID MOVE.” his fist meets with ishimaru’s nose and upper jaw. he falls backwards as naegi catches his body, barely managing to keep themselves standing up. </p><p>“ISHIMARU!” enoshima runs to his aid, carefully sitting him to the ground. she crouches down and holds his back to have him sit up. </p><p>“owada.” another voice evaded the cramped the elevator, ogami refuses to meet the other’s gaze, “as a warrior to another, how disappointing of you.”</p><p>the gangster only scoffs at this, as if of contentment. </p><p>the prefect coughs up drops of blood vigorously as it splatters on whoever was in front of him, simultaneous with the rapid blood dripping from his nose. </p><p>everybody else just stood and watched. i mean, what could they do in such a cramped elevator?</p><p>“jesus, kiyotaka.” enoshima remarks as she gives him a handkerchief.</p><p>“how the hell can you have a handkerchief stuffed somewhere inside that blazer?” the prefect asks in a nasal voice, careful not to cough out anymore blood. </p><p>“i’m the ultimate fashionista! what can i say?” she gives him a wide smile, patting his head. </p><p>the elevator doors open, then there came another voice, “i am disappointed in you, haircut.” </p><p>naegi and enoshima helps ishimaru to stand up, while mostly everybody else gave spiteful hits at mondo, both physically and verbally. </p><p>“seriously, your talent should be the super duper high school level needless violence. christ, the fuck is wrong with you?” monokuma said, slumped on the throne settled in the middle of the room. </p><p>“if that monodude said you’re fucked up, he’s <i>not</i> tripping, man!” hagakure slurs a bit on his words, observing his surroundings. </p><p>“but you’re the one <i>tripping</i> here, pothead.” the bear sighs as he eyes each of the students, “anyway, i’ve prepared a panel for every single one of you! there’s a nameplate for each of you, so please stand correspondingly.”</p><p>naegi eyes the room as he helps ishimaru to his spot, reluctant, he obeys anyway. he sees the draping red velvet curtains, the checkered tiles, and the overall vibe of the room was unsettling. not to mention the literal throne standing at the back with monokuma casually lounging and the panels of each student, lying at the center as it embodies a circle. </p><p>“before we move on and start the trial, can i ask a question real quick?” kirigiri remarks as she heads to her panel. </p><p>“by all means, do as you please, my dear.”</p><p>“i presume one of the empty panels is for kuwata.” the detective eyes the two empty spots, “if there’s only fifteen students, why are there sixteen panels?</p><p>“no particular reason! it’s just that i love symmetry, that’s all.” monokuma nonchalantly responds as kirigiri puts a hand on her chin, deep in thought. something wasn’t adding up to her. </p><p>“i think you know the drill by now.” the bear stands up on his seat and claps twice. </p><p>as the sound echoes through the room, a hatch from above opens, dropping a portrait and a stand, as it lands on one of the empty panels. </p><p>“<i>JESUS.</i>” hagakure jumps away from his spot causing him fallback on the ground. </p><p>the portrait featured a grayscale face of kuwata leon with a thick red x mark plastered on top. it wasn’t much in of itself, but it became a reminder to each of them of what was to come after the trial. it’s either they’ll each have a portrait of their own, but of one, or of the blackened alone. </p><p>“<i>not quite.</i>” monokuma smirks as he watches the students’ faces break, each expression <i>horrified</i>, each of their being <b>despair</b>. he doesn’t laugh, instead he leisurely watches his subjects relish the grounding reality of what was to come. </p><p> </p><p>“<i>enough</i> with the religious allegories.” togami broke the silence, “can i at least trust that you will be impartial with this case?” </p><p>“why wouldn’t i be? if i wasn’t, now that wouldn’t be fair nor would it be entertaining at all right?” monokuma dazes at each of the students lazily as he slumps on his seat. </p><p>“<i>entertaining?!</i>” asahina slams her hands on the wooden bearings. </p><p>“now’s not the time to debate about that, my dear.” the bear stands up and clears his throat. </p><p><i>does that bear even have a throat?</i> naegi eyes monokuma with a confused look. </p><p>“i think you all know the drill by now. good evening, guys, gals, and non-binary pals! calling the case of the murder of kuwata leon versus the blackened. are all parties ready?” he whips out a gavel seemingly from out of nowhere. </p><p>“just get on with it.” togami scoffs, rolling his eyes. </p><p>“all right, alright, aight. trial is now in session!” he raises the mallet and strikes the sound block on one of his throne’s handles. </p><p>“how does this even work?” asahina puts a hand by her chin.</p><p>“yeah, i was absent for most of my high school.” hagakure scratches the back of his neck. </p><p>“i never listened to any of my classes.” owada nervously taps his fingers on the bearings. </p><p>“comrades, close your eyes and raise your right hand if you did it.” ishimaru closes his eyes and covers it with a hand. </p><p>“you all are <i>absolutely</i> hopeless.” togami grunts as he rolls his eyes, “i will start. now, who does everyone think the murderer is?”</p><p>immediately, there came a handful of accusingly pointed fingers at naegi. </p><p>“wait, i haven’t even presented my side yet!” naegi’s voice evades the room, but fails to persuade his classmates. </p><p>“is that so?” maizono cockily interjects, she seems to be very confident, “then i’ll present mine. naegi makoto <i>killed</i> my leonie!” </p><p>“what?” naegi almost screams, earning him a few confused and many aggravated looks, “let me present my case first. if i was the killer, why would there be blood stains on the doorknobs of the infirmary, kuwata’s dorm, and of the storage room?”</p><p>“why do we have to fill in the blanks for you, shithead?!” owada raises a shaky fist, “she said you’re the killer. you obviously fought with one of them and bled from it as you traveled along the halls!” </p><p>“<i>no.</i> that’s wrong!” the luckster interjects, unconsciously pointing a finger at the gangster, “if i fought with them, that would indicate at <i>least</i> a shred of struggle in the room! which there was none.”</p><p>“eh? how the hell can you prove that?” owada tilts his head slightly. </p><p>“if maizono saw me there, then they would’ve been informed about me being there. therefore indicting a fight, correct?”</p><p>“yes.” </p><p>“you’ve been in the room, so did ogami. clearly both of you have seen what the crime scene looked liked.”</p><p>ogami merely nods at this. </p><p>as owada snarls a bit, “yeah. so? what about it?” </p><p>“as a gangster and a fighter, when you fight with your rivals, there’s always indicators of a struggle. whether it’s to your own body or to the environment, it’s inevitable. am i correct, owada? ogami?” </p><p>“that is correct.” the fighter affirms. </p><p>“uhhh, yeah..” the gangster trails off, “there never was one fight i had, that nothing was broken.”</p><p>“you broke my nose for fuck’s sake!” ishimaru validates, his voice still very nasal. </p><p>“with that knowledge, the crime scene was relatively clean of any sort of struggle, except for the more obvious atrocity of kuwata’s body.” naegi contemplates as he gently rubs his chin, “i didn’t suffer any repercussive injuries, besides to this obvious thing wrapped around my head.” he points to the cloth that encircles the back of his head and around his forehead, “and if you take a closer look at kuwata’s body, he never had external injuries other than those he had on his head, neither did maizono. am i right?”</p><p>“yeah..” the idol trails off. </p><p>“what? how could we possibly know you don’t have any other bruises on your body?” hagakure tilts his head at the luckster. </p><p>“for once, you were actually quite helpful there, hagakure.” togami releases a content huff, “in that case, strip down your clothes, naegi!” </p><p>“what? <i>seriously?</i> why not have maizono do it too?” the luckster looks offended, taken aback. he looks like he won’t be budging. he refuses to be <i>stripped down</i> to this level. </p><p>“i treated her wounds and i can confirm she didn’t have other injuries besides to her head.” ishimaru remarks almost aggressively as he slams his hands against the bearings. </p><p>“naegi, you want your innocence proven, correct?” kirigiri remarks as if it was completely normal for her. </p><p>“mako,” there came a soft voice from across, “it’s for the case. i believe you’re not the killer, but they don’t. prove it.” enoshima gives a small smile, it breaks naegi. </p><p>“fine.” he was still reluctant, but oh how she could break his walls. he hastily removes his blazer and hangs it on the bearing. then he slowly unzips his hoodie, already exposing his bare chest and sets it with his blazer. </p><p>“damn, naegi.” came from a nasal ishimaru, his jaw dropping from the sight. </p><p>“i told you i’m clean.” the luckster showcases his body, shrugging his arms as he turns around once, “are you happy now?” </p><p>“no, no. do that again.” enoshima curiously stares as she fiddles with her lips. </p><p>“yeah, naegi. do it again.” fukawa, unable to redirect her gaze. </p><p>“comrades, this is an abuse of unlawful use of power.” the prefect devoid a bit to his usual demeanor, “for now, i’ll let it slide.” he slightly shrinks down. </p><p>naegi redirects his gaze at kirigiri, to his surprise, she was staring at him, then she returns his gaze. the luckster mentally asks for permission as the detective lightly nods, in turn naegi turns around once more. </p><p>“you heathens, you <i>absolute</i> heathens.” celestia raises her voice a bit, “although, who am i to complain?” she clears her throat, “now, this proves that naegi in fact, did <i>not</i> engage in physical violence with either victim, does it not?” </p><p>naegi reaches for his hoodie and zips it up to his neck. </p><p>“precisely.” togami fixes his frame’s positioning on his face, “but naegi, how can you prove that never entered the room in to begin with? perhaps you could’ve killed stealthily.” </p><p>“remembering kuwata’s injuries, his head was hit against the wall first, then with a bat, and again back to the wall. did i get that right, kirigiri?” the luckster then reached out for his blazer as he eyes the girl. </p><p>the detective simply nods. </p><p>“you can’t prove that’s how it happened. perhaps, you hit his head first, then slammed him. perhaps, you even did the same to maizono.” togami rebuts, his arms crossed against his chest. </p><p>“okay. here’s what happened,“ kirigiri started. </p><p>“hold up, dear. i’ll take the lead.” celestia gazes at the detective, asking for permission to which she nods once more. the gambler’s face was in a default smirk as she speaks, “all right. when you enter the scene, a small blotch and a long trail of blood was visible on the wall. take a look at kuwata’s head, he sustained two different hits to the head. one, at his left and another at the back, where he was hit twice. the small blotch was first and as it matches the with the back, of course with significantly less blood. then he was hit at his left by the bat you found inside the storage room, am i correct, togami?”</p><p>the scion gives a smalls huff of confirmation in response. </p><p>“then his head once again met with the wall as his body falls and his head slumps to the left. it’s with the indication of how much blood was reeking from his head as it corresponds to the trail on the wall. it couldn’t have been maizono’s, considering if you simply checked her height relative to the blotch of blood, it was too high to match with her head.” with this, celestia gives a smile and places both hands below her chin coupled with an oddly charming head tilt. </p><p>“i didn’t know you had it in you, celestia.” togami fixes the frame’s positioning on his face as a cocky smile emerges, “there’s still one thing, how can naegi prove he never entered the dorm in the first place? what about that, hm? and by that, we haven’t even started on the blood stains on your carpet. i presume that’s where maizono was attacked.”</p><p>then there came naegi’s biggest fear. he was stumped. he didn’t know how to refute his claim. there was something else, something he missed. although he can’t quite pinpoint what it was. </p><p>
  <i>there’s got to something else. irrefutable evidence that damningly says i couldn’t have entered the room.</i>
</p><p>“alright, i’ll take on this.” kirigiri speaks up with a small smile plastered on her face, “the door was locked.”</p><p>
  <i>was it?</i>
</p><p>“eh?” asahina tilts her head, “what if naegi just locked the door himself?”</p><p>
  <i>when they came to wake me up, there was enoshima, ishimaru, kirigiri, and celestia.</i>
</p><p>“no. he couldn’t have. the doors can only be locked on the inside with the key.” </p><p>
  <i>i was sleeping on the floor peacefully, until somebody was impatiently knocking on my door, kicking on it even.</i>
</p><p>“then <i>where</i> is the damned key?!” owada erupts as he slowly clenches his fist. </p><p>
  <i>while i was painfully heading slowly to the door,</i>
</p><p>“here.” kirigiri whips out a key attached to a slightly bloody blue keychain with the words <i>kuwata leon</i> etched in. </p><p>
  <i>i opened it to find enoshima and ishimaru by mine,</i>
</p><p>this gains the attention of everyone in the room, even of monokuma’s, who was now significantly paying more attention. </p><p>
  <i>while kirigiri and celestia was at kuwata’s.</i>
</p><p>“w-where did you <i>get</i> that?” maizono shakily points at the keys. </p><p>
  <i>enoshima hugged me, and ishimaru walked to the other opened door.</i>
</p><p>“from <i>you</i>, of course.” the detective nonchalantly says as she playfully twirls it around with her hand, “i found it hidden underneath your skirt when we first found you and kuwata.” </p><p>
  <i>i couldn’t see what was inside, but i presume the door was locked while i was inside mine.</i>
</p><p>“YOU WHAT?!” the idol jumps a bit as her screams evade the whole room. </p><p>
  <i>then there came the dead body announcement, after three people discovered them. but, why would she lock the door and hide it..? not unless..</i>
</p><p>“here,” kirigiri skillfully twirls the keys to land on her palm, “take it.” she throws at maizono, she catches it. </p><p>but then naegi remembers something kirigiri said to him last night, <i>if you observe everybody’s slightly different mannerisms, body language, and their interactions with everybody, you’d see who’s out of place.</i></p><p>“I GOT IT!” </p><p>maizono loudly gasps at naegi’s statement. she looks alarmed, sweating even. </p><p>“it was <i>you!</i> maizono sayaka is the culprit.” naegi whips out his hand, slightly leaning towards the idol as he points at her. </p><p>“<i>EEEEEEEEEEEH?!</i>” she loses her cool as she violently slams her hands, “you have no proof that’s it me! and i am <i>offended</i> you’d even <i>think</i> i would fucking <b>kill</b> the love of my life!” </p><p>“i thought it was quite odd that nothing else was disturbed in the room and as to why neither of you had other injuries besides to your own heads and why your blood wasn’t in the crime scene.” the luckster retracts his hand, putting it below his chin, “then it came to me. kuwata, <i>submitted</i> to you.” </p><p>“WHAT?! i have <i>no</i> idea of whatever the <i>fuck</i> you’re accusing me of.” maizono violently lashes her arms as she attempts to deny him. </p><p>“<i>you</i> were the one who hit him.”</p><p>“YOU DON’T HAVE PROOF OF THAT!” </p><p>“actually, i do. when i went to the storage room, i saw togami holding the bat with fukawa by his side. the bat had two dent marks. right?”</p><p>“he is correct.” the scion redirects his gaze at him. </p><p>“y-yes, naegi was there.” the author shrinks back as everyone turned their attention to her. </p><p>“naegi, i trust that you have a hold of what happened?” kirigiri questions the luckster with an accompanying eyebrow raise. </p><p>naegi holds onto the bearings with both hands, facing down to the floor, “yes i do.” he raises his head, “here’s what happened. the culprit first slams kuwata onto the wall harshly enough that he bleeds. then they grabbed on one of kuwata’s baseball bats, for he was the ultimate baseball star, he had one. the baseball bat found inside the storage room, however, there were blood marks on the head, but what struck me as odd was there was also blood on the handle. that could only mean the culprit held it again, with blood now on their hands. so they hit themself in the head, explaining the two dents on it. it couldn’t have been kuwata’s, since he was only struck once. while they were walking along the halls, presumably from either guilt or a ruse to deflect suspicion, that’s when they hit themself on the head and unlucky me, their blood was splattered on <i>my</i> carpet. then they passed by the infirmary, leaving only blood marks on one side for it was locked because nighttime was taking effect. right after that, they passed by the storage room. luckily for them, it was open and that’s where they disposed of the bat, in turn leaving blood on <i>both</i> sides. then right after, they rushed back to kuwata’s dorm and locked it from the inside again. why couldn’t they clean their tracks? because of the nighttime rule, water is halted. the reason why kuwata leon never fought back because the person who was attacking him, was his own girlfriend, whom he loved so dearly. it was even in his last words, <i>i deserved this. i will always love you, maizono sayaka.</i> this would also explain why you, maizono, your hands were bloody when we first discovered you and why i saw your hands were being cleaned by ishimaru in the infirmary right after he treated your head injury.”</p><p>naegi takes a breath, “does that ring any bells, maizono sayaka?” he redirects his gaze to the idol, who had a face of defeat and guilt. </p><p>“alright. it was me.” she laughs bitterly, refusing to meet with her classmates’ faces of disappointment. </p><p>from being in the background for so long, monokuma stands up and gains the attention of everyone in the class, “alright. in that case, it’s voting time, children! everyone, line up to my throne.” he claps twice, another hatchet opens as a tables falls out of it. </p><p>“AAAAAAGH! MASTER MONOKUMA, WHY DO OBJECTS KEEP FALLING FROM THE CEILING?” yamada instinctively jumps away from his panel. </p><p>“shut up, hifumi.” the bear flatly says and claps twice again, this time several dozen empty ballots, a wooden box, a sign pen, and an ink bottle conveniently lands on top of the table. </p><p>“h-how the hell did the ink not break?” owada dumbfounded as he could do nothing, but stare at it. </p><p>“that doesn’t matter right now.” monokuma shrugs, “line up, and write me apiece of who you think the blackened is!” he claps twice again. </p><p>“AGH! d-did something fall again?” hagakure closes his eyes, falling backwards. </p><p>“nothing fell you jackass. line up.” there something with his voice that shifted slightly to something else nobody has ever heard yet. demand. </p><p><i>he’s being demanding as shit and he knows it.</i> naegi just obeys his orders as he watches each of his classmates draw a ballot, write on it, and drop it inside the box. </p><p>when it was naegi’s turn, he drew a ballot. <i>is this what’s going to happen if somebody kills again?<i> he writes a name. <i>maizono sayaka, what did you ever do to deserve this?</i> he almost forgets that she pinned the blame on him, but that was somehow a good thing for the luckster. he couldn’t be mad at her right now. not ever. <i>it was never her fault.</i> he picks it up, eyeing it for one last time, then he inserts it to the box. he was the last to drop one, so he walked back to his panel</i></i></p><p>monokuma drops down from his throne, then picks up the ballot box. he walks away, then he disappears again. </p><p>“how the fuck does he keep doing that?” the clairvoyant stares at the spot the bear disappeared. it still baffles him somehow, despite seeing it over a dozen times happening. </p><p>monokuma shortly reappears, the box wasn’t with him anymore. he jumps back up to his throne, then to its headrest. he bends down. it looks like he’s trying to reach something. </p><p>naegi almost feels bad for the bear, but that thought immediately goes away upon realizing they were going to condemn one of their classmates to death. </p><p>he flips something from behind. it sounded like a switch. a few moments pass, then a lively jingle was playing within the room. </p><p>“huh?”</p><p>another hatchet from above opens, dropping what seems like an arcade machine, but something was off. </p><p>“a-are those, our faces?” asahina points at the machine. it presented a three different slots. </p><p>“of course! who can’t recognize the atrocity that is yasuhiro’s face?” monokuma smirks, only his shark teeth showing. he jumps to grab on the handle as, feet of the ground, “children, are you ready for the final verdict?”</p><p>he was excited. <i>so goddamn excited.</i> naegi couldn’t figure out for the life of him as to why he even enjoys despair, let alone despairing himself. </p><p>no one responds. </p><p>“aw, you all are so boring!” with this, he tugs on the handle. the three slots turn in circles for what seems like eternity for them. although, in reality it was about fifteen seconds. </p><p>then it starts to slow down. with the jingle playing in the background, it matches up perfectly as it slowly descends with its last few turns. </p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>..!</p><p> </p><p>“you are indeed correct! maizono sayaka is the blackened~” the bear laughs again as the sound reaches everybody’s ears. the slots landed on maizono, all three of them. </p><p>they couldn’t speak. nothing could come out of their mouths even if they tried to. it was creeping up to their very beings. </p><p>horrible, <i>dreadful</i>, <b>despair</b>. </p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>..!</p><p> </p><p>naegi breaks the silence as he clears his throat. with a bit of uncertainty in his voice, he finally speaks, “maizono,” he gently rubs his fingers together, “the only question left to answer is <i>why?</i> why did you do it?” how could someone find it in themselves to kill their one true love? although, the question he should be asking is, who in their fucking right mind would orchestrate this for play? but now’s not the time for that. he’d have to dwell on that later. </p><p>she was crying, not even bothering to wipe her tears away, “why? <i>why?!</i>”, she raises her head, finally facing her classmates, “because my sucker of a boyfriend is the reason <i>why— he’s why— he fucking—</i>“ she chokes up on her words, unable to finish another sentence, “i-i’m sorry! i c-can’t do this.” she hides her face with one hand avoiding her classmates’ gazes, and with the other to wipe her tears. </p><p>“alright. consider this as my last gift to you, my dear.” monokuma once again slumps to his seat, “i’ll explain in her behalf, and i despairingly hope i could convey it with its depth!”</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>
  <i>“hey, saya..?” kuwata gently says as they walk through the halls, the idol’s hand grasped tightly on the all star’s wrist, “you’re kinda scaring me.” </i>
</p><p>
  <i>she doesn’t respond, instead she walks faster tugging harder on leon’s arm. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>“saya, please don’t ignore me.” </i>
</p><p>
  
</p><p><i>once they reach kuwata’s door, she finally lets go of the all star’s hand and speaks up, “</i>keys.<i>” </i></p><p>
  <i>leon alarmed by her demanding tone, he fiddles in his pockets, reaching for his keys, “h-here.” he hands it to her, which she forcefully takes it away from his hand. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>“tell me what’s wrong.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>no response. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>they enter the dorm with kuwata closely behind, his patience was considerably thinning, “sayaka.” with this she forcefully closes the door behind them. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>this catches the idol off guard, leon never calls her by her full name, but she still doesn’t respond. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>“what was in your motive?” he asks in a monotonous voice, but you could hear the irritation bleeding out. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>maizono turns around to face kuwata. she doesn’t say anything, but her face tells a lot. she was aggravated. she digs her hand inside the hidden compartments of her uniform, revealing the note monokuma gave to them earlier. she throws it to kuwata, which he catches quite eloquently. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>the all star unfolds the paper and there came the horror slowly engulfing his face, eyes widening as his voice breaks, “i-i’m so sorry.” </i>
</p><p>
  <i>“that confirms it.” maizono's voice, uncharacteristically emotionless. her head facing the floor, refusing to look at him. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>“i— yes. i-i did.” kuwata's demeanor suddenly changes as he stifles his choking gasps for air. </i>
</p><p><i>maizono raises her head, “i never believed it when i said it first, but</i> that<i>, that’s a legitimate confession!” she walks closer to leon, edging him to the wall, “please, leonie, tell me it’s not true.” </i></p><p>
  <i>“i-it is. and i’m so sorry, saya.” kuwata sobs harder as he stares at maizono’s dreadful denying eyes. he’s going to have to admit it. i mean, what else has he got to lose? “do whatever you want to do with me.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>he doesn’t speak for a while as the heavy silence suffocates both of them in the room. sayaka couldn’t believe it. she’d have to hear it from his own mouth. surely she was just mistaken and it’s the one lie, right? </i>
</p><p>
  <i>but she’d would ultimately show him another side of herself to the all star as he lets out the words, </i>
</p><p>
  <i>“i killed y-your sister.”</i>
</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>“that was it. that’s her breaking point!” monokuma giddily jumps on his throne as he watches each of their faces falter by the second, “then yada yada yada! makoto practically said everything else juicy.” </p><p>“but something still doesn’t add up.” naegi glares at the bear, “if she wanted to do the perfect crime, at least in her head, it doesn’t make sense to why she’d lock the door. it couldn’t have been a rookie mistake. since, to lock it, you’d have to do it yourself with the key.” </p><p>“o-okay.” maizono finally speaks up. she seems to have collected herself (at least enough to spit out coherent sentences), “i locked it again because i thought i was going to die.”</p><p>
  <i>so it was a genuine suicide attempt.</i>
</p><p>“the infirmary was closed off when i attempted to barged in. then that’s where it hit me, i can’t save leon. i killed him. i began to walk back again to our room, but the guilt was consuming me so much, i hit myself hard. only once though, it hurt so much. but i felt a bit lighter regardless, although it could never compare to the hurt caused by our betrayal to each other.” </p><p>
  <i>i guess she just rolled off with everyone else and joined bandwagon to blame me. it was sloppy, but she worked off with what she had.</i>
</p><p>“i couldn’t let him see that bat again, so i walked through the halls once more. then i discovered the storage room was open, i discarded it there and i went back to leon’s room. i didn’t even realize i splattered my own blood on naegi’s carpet.”</p><p>
  <i>i knew it. she couldn’t have done it on purpose. i guess that’s just what comes of me with my luck. “luck.”</i>
</p><p>“i cried walking back to his room. i locked the door to make it more obvious that nobody else could’ve done it. i laid there, in his arms as he mutters his last words. he said he deserved it, but god knows even i knew he didn’t!” </p><p>
  <i>he didn’t deserve this. you didn’t deserve this. no one did.</i>
</p><p>“it’s my fault he died. i thought i was going too, but i didn’t. i thought it was a miracle that i survived. i believed in it so much i even tried to kill all of you as a result! but that just made me commit a few more sins to earn myself a ticket to hell. with that, i’ll walk the stage one last time. this time, away to my execution.”</p><p>
  <i>that’s morbid. morbidly poetic. but fuck, who am i kidding? if that were me, i’d think the same way.</i>
</p><p>“at least, with all of this, i’d like to think i’d meet him in hell too.” she laughs at this, quite bitterly in fact. although, if you dig at it more, you’d hear a slight twist of relief, “we’re both murderers after all.” she shrugs her shoulders as a sad smile appears on her face. she turns to the bear slumping on the throne, “monokuma,”</p><p>“oh why yes, my dear?” </p><p>“let’s get this over with. i don’t want to live another second more in this life.” </p><p>“alright.” the bear jumps off his throne and walks up to her side, reaching out to hold her hand, “as for the rest of you, i want you all to enter the elevator. it’ll take you to where you need to be.” with that, monokuma leads maizono as she follows closely behind. they turn away from everyone and they both disappear. </p><p>wordlessly, they obey him anyway. </p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>..!</p><p> </p><p>nobody could say a thing, let alone have it in themselves to even <i>think</i> of disobedience. they exit one by one to enter a room. <i>no.</i> it wasn’t anything like a room. </p><p><i>are we, in a chamber..?</i> naegi looks around the room. it was dark, you could barely see anything except for the subtle green lighting beyond the more obvious chain link fence separating them from the rest of the chamber. </p><p>the already limited lighting vanishes and the room turns pitch black. </p><p>audible gasps from each of them fill in the room’s silence. then just before a certain someone could scream like a bitch, beneath the fence mercilessly radiates lights reminiscent of those you see in concerts. </p><p>then there came another kind of light, a spotlight on maizono sayaka for one last time. she was surrounded by a large bear trap, tempting to close on her anytime. with a microphone in her hand, she turns to her side and looks beyond the fence. she was met with the worrisome faces of her classmates. she made eye contact each one of them one last time, wearing a small sad smile and softly mutters, “i’m sorry.” </p><p><br/>
</p><p>
  <b>Déjà Vu: The Ultimate Pop Sensation</b>
</p><p><br/>
</p><p>she looks away to turn to the bear standing by the side, and on cue, a large tv screen drops down from above. it opens and one of her songs came in playing. in fact, it was her first ever single, <i>shooting star, shooting love</i>, looking at the screen, were captions of its lyrics as a lively beat was playing. </p><p>at first, naegi couldn’t make sense of what was happening, then it came to him with a slap to the face when maizono sayaka begins to sing, to perform, one last time as the ultimate pop idol. <i>a karaoke.</i> he couldn’t do anything else as all he could do was watch and listen to her. he felt powerless being unable to even move from his spot. he wanted to help. he wanted to put to a stop with the execution. </p><p><i>she didn’t deserve this.</i> naegi kept on repeating in his head. he was thinking of ways of what he could’ve done better, more practical decisions of how he could’ve handled the situation. but he couldn’t do anything about it because what’s done is done. there’s no turning back in this killing school life. </p><p>he was feeling guilty. maybe he could’ve checked up on everyone last night instead of wallowing in demise and self-pity inside his dorm. although, he wasn’t even sure if that would’ve made a difference. he had his own baggage too. but if maybe, he could’ve handled himself better, this would’ve been prevented. </p><p>maizono was singing her last few lines, ending on a harmonious high note as it tingles to everyone’s bodies. a few moments of silence pass as the screen calculates her score. </p><p>
  <i>100.</i>
</p><p>with monokuma standing idly by, you’d think he’d let her go. but everybody already knew letting her go were never his intentions. </p><p>seemingly like that would be the end, being free to walk away, maizono carefully treads along the bear trap that once encircled her. but once she steps foot outside, the screen then features kuwata and a young girl by his side, happily smiling. she walks closer to the screen as kuwata stretches a hand toward her, the other holding his sister’s. maizono held out her hand too as she steps closer and closer to the screen. </p><p>she just wanted to hold his hand one last time, but it was too good to be true. just when she was inches away from touching the screen, she trips a wire and came the sound of scuffling metal. she didn’t even had the time to turn to it as a large monokuma robot came with a bat, he swings it with both arms directly to her head. </p><p>the rest of her body immediately follows through. as a result, it flung across to the other side of the room killing her instantly. there came a loud crunch that echoed throughout the room as her broken body slowly bleeds out. </p><p>the chain link fence then slowly opens, that gives everyone full access to the scene. </p><p>but there was something else that caught naegi’s attention. there was something that fell out of sayaka’s pocket as she flew across the room. he walks forward to get a better look. </p><p>there was the key to kuwata’s dorm. </p><p>“okay, that’s it for the night, children!”  monokuma reemerges from behind them, “it’s barely even 7 o’clock, you all are free to go!” with that monokuma turns his back to the students and disappears once more. </p><p>everyone else slowly went out of their way back to the elevator, but naegi went the opposite direction. he walks up to the chamber. </p><p>“mako, come on let’s go.” enoshima absentmindedly says as she follows everyone else in the elevator. but it’s with the lack of a response that makes the model look back her shoulder. </p><p>she sees naegi treading to the chamber, reaching out to something, “makoto, what the hell are you doing?” she walks closer to the fences, but didn’t go beyond the line. </p><p>“hold up for a bit.” he says as he swiftly hides the keys away in his pocket. he walks away from the scene, careful not to tamper with the bear trap still lying at the center. </p><p>he finally catches up beside enoshima and intertwines his hand with hers as they make their way back to the elevator.</p><p><br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>
  <i>“wooh! what a rush of despair flowing through my veins! i’m going to have to let them do this more often.”</i>
</p><p>  <i>“i don’t think that’s a great idea.”</i></p><p>  <i>“EEEEEEEEH?! why the fuck not?”</i></p><p>  <i>“...”</i></p><p>  <i>“huh, i see. oh well, they could do nothing about this!”</i></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. sins, sinners, sinning..</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hi! i’m so sorry for the wait and that this took so long for me to publish:( a lot has happened since, but i’m glad i can finally post another chapter! i won’t talk for much longer, but thank you so much for the support. the comments, the kudos, hell, we even reached a thousand hits. thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart. anyway, here’s chapter 8!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>it was nearing 7pm and ishimaru, in the elevator, proposed an early evening meeting. it wasn’t much of a meeting in of itself as it comprised of everybody eating in complete silence. </p><p>by the table, there were two distinct empty seats. the ones where kuwata and maizono used to sit, side by side even. to an outsider, it was nothing more than an awkward gap between the remaining seats, let alone if they’d even give it their attention. </p><p>no one dared to fix the chairs back under the table as they were left how they were last used, a bit edged back from the table itself, but still placed very closely to each other. one could say it was a funeral for them. </p><p>it’s not that they weren’t allowed to hold funerals, but simply because they didn’t know how to organize one in the first place. although nobody has explicitly said it was one to begin with, it was clear to everybody what was happening. </p><p>once everyone finished their meals, they didn’t even bother to stand up and leave them inside the kitchen. instead, they all clumped their plates and utensils together and was pushed to the side. </p><p>it was already nearing 10pm, still, nobody has said a single word, instead mourning silently as the occasional sniffle or cough was heard in the room. </p><p>to monokuma, however, he was already getting bored. bored of watching these thirteen mediocre teenagers in silence, all gathered together in a table, doing absolutely fucking nothing. with this, he appears silently by the cafeteria’s doors. at first nobody noticed his presence, until he whines childishly and gains a few gazes of distaste. </p><p>“you all are so boring! come on now, do something.” he says whining as he hops on the table, strutting almost dramatically. it coupled with the sounds of clunking kitchenware, threatening to fall off. </p><p>“you truly are the lowest scum in history.” </p><p>monokuma turns to the voice, “<i>eh?</i>” it belonged to enoshima. </p><p>“i can’t beat the shit out of you without getting closer.” she snarls, her fists already in place. she stands up, putting a foot on the table the other on her chair as she rolls up her sleeves. </p><p>the bear simply tilts his head to the side with a hint of mockery in his voice, “what is this sudden surge of defiance?” </p><p>“junko,” she turns to the voice beside her, it was naegi. he holds out his hand to her with a sympathetic face plastered. </p><p>“violence against headmaster monokuma is strictly prohibited.” ishimaru remarks, his voice a bit quiet, but still firm. the model grunts at this, but still takes the luckster’s hand. he assists her in stepping down from the table, whilst monokuma just watches. </p><p>“let me tell you something, <i>junko.</i>” the stress on her name was unnerving, it was spoken almost of disgust, as naegi would put it. “you live your life by the orders of your superiors, how disgraceful must that feel about your <i>talent?</i>” </p><p>then there it was again. that <i>enunciation.</i> to the untrained ear, you wouldn’t think much of it. but if naegi has learned anything from this school, <i>ironically enough not even from teachers, but from kirigiri</i>, it’s that learning how to read people is key. </p><p>you’d think the spiteful enoshima would be able to make a snarky comeback, instead she slumps down to her seat, visibly taken aback by monokuma’s words. </p><p>
  <i>how does this stupid bear even do that? let alone, to arguably the most headstrong of students.</i>
</p><p>with this, naegi gently intertwines his hand with enoshima’s, which she reciprocates almost immediately. </p><p>monokuma redirects his gaze from junko to the now adjoined hands with a bit of a shock and amusement on his face. he laughs. at first, it was merely a few light chuckles, but then immediately it turns to loud, almost boisterous laughter. </p><p> </p><p>“...”</p><p> </p><p>..!</p><p> </p><p>these awkward pauses, the despair inducing few moments of silence, they’re getting it more frequent than any of them liked. although, absolutely no one enjoyed even a second if it. </p><p>maybe that’s why monokuma purposely made it so. it seems as though he <i>lives</i> for these limited seconds. </p><p>but naegi won’t allow that. <i>no</i>, not this round. </p><p>“aren’t you ever satisfied?” the luckster purposefully snarled a bit once ever slipped out of his mouth, hoping to get a spiteful reaction. <i>people, or in this case, whatever the fuck he is, generally slip up the most when they’re aggressive.</i></p><p>“what was that, makoto?” </p><p>it wasn’t the kind of reaction he was hoping he’d get. <i>bland.</i> he’d have to do more, “seriously? what the fuck is it with you and your <i>despair</i> fetish?” adding a touch of mockery. </p><p>he turns his attention to naegi, he was getting somewhere. <i>more.</i> “do you really get off on something as <i>abhorrent</i> as despair?”</p><p>a small growl escapes the bear’s mouth, but it doesn’t open. more power. “is this some kind of <i>guilty pleasure</i> of yours?”</p><p>naegi swears he saw the slightest glint that came from his red eye. if you blinked, you would’ve missed it. <i>more power.</i> “if it is, <i>don’t</i> put it out on us.”</p><p>a stronger red glow escaped from his eye that lasted about more than a second. he was getting somewhere. <i>more <b>power</b>.</i> “there’s countless sites dedicated to that shit.” </p><p>the flicker was very much prominent. it catches the eyes of most, even of those who weren’t even staring at the bear. <i><b>maximum power</b>.</i> “nobody wants to know about your nasty desires! and with <i>absolute</i> certainty,” this time, the red glint never disappeared from his eye, “i speak for <i>everyone</i> in the room.” </p><p>monokuma stares at him blankly for a few moments and then meekly laughs, putting a paw on his unbothered mouth. </p><p><i>w-what?</i> naegi could feel his face falter. he wasn’t going to let it fall. <i>no. not today.</i></p><p>“did you really think you could win a battle of wits against me?” the bear’s tone was flat, but at the same time, very condescending. </p><p>
  <i>play dumb?</i>
</p><p>“did the notoriously bland makoto really think he could outsmart <i>me?</i>” </p><p><i>play dumb.</i> if he wants to play dumb, he’d have to do it right. </p><p>“i am a bear of class. if you want to paint me as some thirty year old pedophile lumberjack, well if i were to be god fucking <i>damned</i>,”</p><p>the luckster displays slightly furrowed eyebrows, narrowed eyes, a slightly open mouth, and tilted head leaning to the side. </p><p>but it was something else that genuinely surprised naegi.</p><p>“<i>i</i> control those fuckers!”</p><p>“what?”</p><p>but nonetheless, it somehow worked. in response, monokuma also tilts his head and spits out a simple, “<i>eh?</i>”</p><p>
  <i>he what?!</i>
</p><p>“ah! i’m afraid i’ve said too much.” </p><p>
  <i>did i overdo it? yeah, definitely. if i’d kept quiet, maybe he would’ve slipped up more.</i>
</p><p>monokuma turns around, avoiding naegi’s gaze and drops to the floor. he walks dramatically slow into the halls, “it looks like you <i>have</i> outsmarted me, makoto. you’re not as boring as i thought you were.” he stops, but doesn’t turn his back, “not bad.” </p><p>and just then, he disappears. </p><p>“ha,” hagakure spits out in a flat, but confused tone. </p><p>“what just happened?” asahina blinks rapidly, attempting to make sense of what just happened. </p><p>with this, togami scoffs, “that was actually quite helpful, naegi.” he lowers his head slightly and a small smile creeps on his face. </p><p>
  <i>he has control over people? outside?! what in the ever living fuck happened out there?</i>
</p><p>interrupting naegi’s train of thoughts, the loud and gentle bells echoes throughout the room and the screen opens to monokuma holding a glass of wine, “good evening, children! it’s now 10pm, meaning nighttime will take effect. some facilities on campus and water supplies be halted until 7am. sleep well, children.”</p><p>
  <i>that was, quick.</i>
</p><p>“that’s just not fair. i’d want me some of that.” owada stares wistfully at the screen, his face in a default scowl. </p><p>“ah, i could use a glass,” celestia redirects her gaze to kirigiri, unfazed, “or two” a small smirk was present on the gambler’s face and unconsciously taps her fingers against one another as if she’s holding an actual glass. </p><p>“to be or not to be drinking.” togami nods his head and prepares to stand up. immediately fukawa, stands up too. in turn, the scion offers an arm to her, which the author gleefully takes. </p><p>with that, one by one, in some cases, two by two, they stand up and exit the cafeteria. </p><p> </p><p>that’s only when owada notices fujisaki was the only left by the table. he approaches the programmer, sitting on the chair beside her. although she still doesn’t acknowledge his presence. </p><p>he studies fujisaki for a while and noticing she’s counting with her fingers, mumbling about something. </p><p>“hey,” this catches the programmer’s attention, startling her quite a bit, “woah, woah. calm down there for a bit, hiro.” he speaks in a soft tone, almost uncharacteristically sweet. </p><p>“a-ah, it’s nothing.” she hides her hands away, fiddling with her skirt and lowers her head. </p><p>“you were counting something?”</p><p>“yes. yes i was actually.”</p><p>“well what was it about?” owada relaxes on the chair, putting his feet up on the table. he watches her demeanor instantly bright up and a small cheery chuckle escapes her mouth. </p><p>“as it is for me, i can only make sense of the world through numbers.” she lifts up her head to face forward, “so i was tallying despair,” she lifts up her closed left hand up until her eyes, “to hope.” and then she lifts her right. </p><p>“one,” she lifts a finger on her left, <i>kuwata leon.</i></p><p>“two,” then lifts another, <i>maizono sayaka.</i></p><p>“three,” then another, <i>we sent one of our classmates to their execution.</i></p><p>“four,” and another, <i>we’re stuck here, forever.</i></p><p>“fi—“ interrupting fujisaki, owada easily engulfs her hand with his, holding it ever so gently. “sh,” he shushes her in a calming tone. perhaps, it wasn’t as uncharacteristic for him as fujisaki first thought. </p><p>“you know, you can always overcome it with hope.” his hand still holding hers. </p><p>“how can you be so... sure of that?” she fixes her gaze to owada’s eyes. </p><p>“because if something hopeful happens, like when monokuma slipped up, you could make it to any number you want.” </p><p>“uhm, in that case, then... what number will i assign hope to?” she looks at him with wistful eyes and a very eager half-smile present on her face. </p><p>“find it in your heart, hiro.” </p><p> </p><p>
  <i>despair — 5</i>
</p><p>
  <i>hope — 1,000,000</i>
</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>naegi groans at the sound of the bell, he looks up at the monitor to feature monokuma holding, of what he could deduce, “vodka?” </p><p>“good morning, children! it’s now 7am meaning all facilities and water will be resumed for your pleasure. please proceed to the gym at around 8am for a few special announcements.” and the screen fades. </p><p>“i swear to fucking god, if he gives us another motive, i’ll bang my head against the goddamned wall.” he gently massages his forehead and redirects his hand to ruffle his hair quite aggressively. </p><p> </p><p>“you know, eggy,” monokuma’s seated on top of the podium with the rest of the class already present, “i was almost tempted to give you all a motive after you said you’d bang your head against the wall!” the bear eyes him idly, a paw circling at him. </p><p>“y-you heard that?” </p><p>“NAEGI!” ishimaru perks up, everyone’s attention were now to him, “this is no joking matter! what if he’s actually serious? whatever you do, do <i>not</i> provoke him.” </p><p>“yada <i>yada</i> <b>yada</b>! just <i>shut yer trap</i> already mr. perfect. i’ve had enough of you ordering us around.” owada practically screams from the top of his lungs. he scares quite a few of his classmates, finally releasing his pent up frustration. why was he even frustrated? because he too, is a leader, a gang leader. he wasn’t the one to take orders, he <i>makes</i> them. </p><p>“owada! that’s not tolerated in this school environment.” ishimaru turns to face the gangster, his expression rather blank more than anything. he was just trying to maintain order within his classmates, what was so wrong with what he did? </p><p>“not tolerated? yeah, no shit. YOU DON’T TOLERATE ANYTHING, STALIN! tolerance for nothing is borderline fascism, <b>führer</b>.” owada walks closer to the prefect. why can’t any of them do anything as simple as to express themselves? there’s a rule indicating you can’t go around kicking the headmaster, but there’s nothing about talking shit to him. so who the fuck is he tell us how to think? it’s not <i>that</i> bad compared to being quarantined in this campus against their own will, right?</p><p>yamada nonchalantly remarks, “but master owada mondo, isn’t that the wrong—“ but gets cut off by enoshima from across the room, before he finishes his question, “wrong title? oh yeah, definitely.” </p><p>“i am only <i>maintaining</i> order around here. and <i>that</i> is not tolerated in a school environment!” the prefect in turn, marches closer to him. with both parties slowly making their way to each other, the dreadful heavy tension was one again present in the air. </p><p>“<b>school environment</b> <i>this</i>, <b>school environment</b> <i>that.</i> this isn’t even a <i>goddamned</i> <b>school environment</b>! you don’t know how to say anything else, but <i>that.</i> you’re all fucking talk!” as their faces were inches apart, it was only with owada’s hair was the only medium left separating them apart. they’re simultaneously eyeing each other with equally intimidating smoldering looks. </p><p>“it’s for consistency! besides, how could <i>you</i> of all people know what that is? let me ask you a question, just how easily could you go from soft and sweet to being loud and needlessly violent?” ishimaru snarls even louder, but he wasn’t finished talking, “oh yeah! don’t you dare to deny it, because i saw you and fujisaki being all lovey-dovey last night in the cafeteria.” </p><p>this strikes a nerve in owada, he went from indomitably angry to his face faltering within seconds. </p><p>“ishimaru, isn’t that a bit—“ fujisaki tries to interject, but immediately gets cut off by none other than owada himself. </p><p>“chihiro, this doesn’t involve you.” his tone was adamant, he wasn’t screaming, but you could hear his voice slightly cracking. although, it was enough to make the programmer stammer, her face visibly hurt. </p><p>“of course i saw that! i’m always the first to enter and the last t—“</p><p>“can’t you two imbeciles, <i>just for a second</i>, not bicker with each other?” togami wasn’t taking anymore shit. he’d have <i>enough.</i> “monokuma, may i ask of you to proceed with what you were saying?”</p><p>“oh come on! the fuck did you do that for, christmas tree? just when things were about to get juicy.” the bear whines helplessly as he circles around his podium. while throwing a fit, ishimaru and mondo begrudgingly separate from each other. </p><p>“you’d think for the headmaster he’d be more mature than this.” asahina puts a hand below her chin, eyeing him rather judgmentally. </p><p>“oh shut up, donuts!”</p><p>“<i>EH?!</i>”</p><p>“anyway! there’s a whole new world open for all of you, my dear children.” monokuma says and a full smile appears on his face with all its cheshire-shark teeth glory, “okay that’s it. you all are dismissed!” </p><p>“ha? that’s it?” hagakure flatly says with a tinge of annoyance, “you made us come all the way here at 8am just to tell us that?” </p><p>“what? it’s not like <i>any</i> of you would enjoy exercising at this hour, am i right?” the bear brightly hums as he tilts his head slightly to the side.</p><p>“yeah.. no shit.” the clairvoyant lowers his head as he trails off. </p><p>“but, i <i>wanna</i> exercise though!” asahina jumps in place, excited, almost as if she’s preparing to jog. </p><p>“how are you so upbeat when merely in the course of 24 hours, your dear classmates, leon and sayaka, finally succumbed to their sins by your influence?” monokuma scratches his head, more for mockery than anything. </p><p>“<i>ah.</i> i forgot about that.” after hearing that, she drains of what little energy she had left. </p><p>“HEY! if we <i>didn’t</i> find the true blackened, then every one of us would’ve been executed as a result!” naegi interjects as he lashes his arms at monokuma, “<i>don’t</i> you dare turn the blame on us. it’s with your influence that they’re... no longer here.” </p><p>“now, now, there’s no need to be hasty, makoto.” the bear props himself up, “although, that still doesn’t negate the fact that it was still <i>your</i> class who sent dear sayaka to her early demise.” </p><p>“what?! but if we <i>didn’t</i> participate in the trial, then you would’ve killed all of us!” </p><p>“oh why yes, i would have! i wouldn’t want <i>all</i> of you to die so prematurely.”</p><p>
  <i>he’s so nonchalant. why?</i>
</p><p>“i thought you were rooting for us to die?! if you did that, you could’ve saved yourself the trouble of putting this stupid of a show!” </p><p>“of course not! this killing game was designed for my pleasure and it would seem like a waste of potential despair if everyone died so soon.”</p><p>
  <i>that’s so fucking stupid.</i>
</p><p>“so you wanted us to <i>turn on</i> one another?! because we’re nothing, but instruments for your despair fetish?”</p><p>“ohohohoho! you’ve got me all wrong, makoto. i <i>truly</i> do care for each of you, which is ultimately what makes it all the more despairing!” </p><p>
  <i>eh?! if he cared about us, why is he doing this?</i>
</p><p>“you care about us, but you want us to kill each other, therefore be as disgusting as you are? what in the fuckening fuck is with that logic?” </p><p>“it seems that it’s only <i>now</i> you’ve seen the beauty of this academy! it’s simply all for my pleasure, how hard is it for you to understand?” monokuma once again tilts his head to the side, his voice was soft, rather endearing, but naegi didn’t take it that way. </p><p>
  <i>but the question i should even be asking is, why does he care about us?</i>
</p><p>“<i>pleasure</i>, my ass.”</p><p>“woah, that’s gay!” fukawa immediately surges out of nowhere, but was immediately held back by togami. </p><p>
  <i>could it be, the mastermind is somebody we know?</i>
</p><p>“you hypocritical bastard! you say you’re nothing like the corrupt leaders in this nation, yet you contradict yourself by driving innocent teenage students to murder.” without a doubt, naegi was angry. he could do this all day, but everybody already knows the two would just circle back to each other. </p><p>“yeah, that’s about the whole point of all of this. i’m surprised you haven’t caught on sooner.” monokuma drops from the podium. he struts from across the room, making his way to naegi, “all sinners must reside with their own restitutions. don’t you know that, makoto?”</p><p>
  <i>no, no. it couldn’t have. we didn’t even know one another up until a few days ago.</i>
</p><p>“YOU’RE A MONSTER!” with monokuma scarily close in proximity, he stumbles in his steps causing him to fallback to the floor, “Y-YOU’RE LIKE HITLER, BUT EVEN HITLER CARED ABOUT GERMANY OR SOMETHING.”</p><p>with this monokuma steps on naegi, “oh, but i do care for all of you!” he was excited, his mood seemingly unaffected from the luckster’s insults, “anyway, get to exploring! i’m so excited for what <i>i</i> have in store for all of you!” </p><p>monokuma seemingly satisfied, he jumps off naegi’s body. he strikes one last smirk and turns his back on them, then disappears. </p><p>“FUCKING HYPOCRITE! HYPOCRITE! HYPOCRITE! HYPOCRITEHYPOCRITEHYPOCRITEHYPOCRI—“ something lodges in naegi’s throat, causing him to halt speaking. it takes a while before it sinks in with what was going on. he was choking. </p><p>“MAKOTO,” enoshima, coming to her senses was nearby and rushes to the choking boy’s side. supporting his body, she pats his back with significant force to help him ease up, “breathe.”</p><p>then the luckster starts to cough, “oh thank <i>god.”</i></p><p>a few moments pass and his concerned classmates were already circling around him, they watch him violently cough. beating his chest, he stammers in saying, “w-why thank g-god when it was y-you who saved m-me?”</p><p>“eh?” a slight scowl creeps up on enoshima’s face, “it was just an expression. no need to take it so seriously...” she trails off, “...stupid.” she lets go of naegi, making him fall on his back as everyone surrounding him simultaneously steps backwards. </p><p>he hits his already injured head again and he sits up, clutching it rather shakily, “ah, just my luck.”</p><p>“that was quite ridiculously unlucky for the ultimate lucky student.” togami watches him struggling to stand up, “although it did pay off with what we learned from his argument with monokuma. just the right complexion of success and travesty.” </p><p>“i’d call it the hope opposed to despair, but you do you, togami.” naegi grunts at the sudden shots of pain, “alright, i’m checking to see if those shudders finally opened up.”</p><p>with this, ishimaru once again perks up, “comrades! with no more intrusions, let us all head to the stairs.” he leads everyone to the stairs with minimal more distractions. </p><p>at least that was the case for ishimaru, he didn’t even realize naegi tripped on his steps <i>again</i> on the way. </p><p>“now, this is just getting quite ridiculous, don’t you think?” celestia comments as she watches junko assist naegi walking. </p><p>“oh absolutely.” with that, enoshima, without question, lifts naegi by his torso carrying him by her shoulders. although, she does it in a way that at one shoulder, it was his head facing downwards and at the other, were his dangling legs, attempting to protest. </p><p>“junko, put me down!” </p><p>“absolutely not. who knows what might happen to you on your own? with your luck, you’d probably break a leg at this rate.” with naegi on her shoulders, everyone else gave their own brand of surpise. </p><p>“isn’t that expression for good luck?” he gives up protesting, now accepting being carried. </p><p>“ironically, i meant it.” this earns her a scoff from the luckster. in turn, she teasingly eases her grip on his body causing him to fallback a bit.  </p><p>“HEY!” </p><p>“alright, alright. i’m sorry.” she trails off as she tightens her grip on his body. she was careful not to hurt naegi, but also careful not to let him fall off. </p><p>“detective,” celestia starts, earning kirigiri’s attention. </p><p>“hm?”</p><p>“carry me.”</p><p>with this kirigiri removes her blazer, gaining a few confused looks. almost immediately, she sweeps celestia off her feet, carrying her bridal style and places the blazer to cover her dangling legs. the gambler couldn’t even react in time as it all happened so fast. so sly. she loved it. </p><p>“always the gentleman, are we, kirigiri?” a devilish smirk plastered on celestia’s face, staring back at the unfazed kirigiri kyoko. she doesn’t speak, instead she lightly shakes her head at the gambler. </p><p>“woah, what the fuck?” owada stares dumbfounded at the two pairs, the same with everyone else, with the exception for ishimaru. </p><p>“owada! no foul lan—“ before the prefect could even finish his sentence, he stops to stare dumbfounded at the four along with the rest. </p><p>“the hell are you looking at, clusterfucks?” enoshima snarls. </p><p>“this perfectly aligns with my fanta—“ yamada starts, but gets interrupted by asahina with a sudden blow to his chest. he grunts in pain, but was paid little to no attention. </p><p>“why is this short walk to the stairs taking so long?” hagakure impatiently taps his foot with his arms crossed against his chest. </p><p>“we’ve been standing in front of it for the past five minutes.” kirigiri nonchalantly remarks, still carrying celestia. one by one, they turn their attention to the now opened stairway. the shudders were no longer to be seen as each of their faces seems to lighten up from the sight. </p><p>“i never thought i’d be so goddamn happy seeing stairs.”
</p><p><br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>
  <i>“let me ask you something,”</i>
</p><p>  <i>“oh?”</i></p><p>  <i>“just where is this surge of defiance coming from?”</i></p><p>  <i>“...”</i></p><p>  <i>“don’t tell me it’s from your petty of a crush?”</i></p><p>
  <i>“...”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“i knew it! i didn’t know you were actually capable of feelings.”</i>
</p><p>  <i>“don’t you fucking laugh at me.”</i></p><p>
  <i>“now, this is actually where shit starts to get interesting!”</i>
</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. not worth the extra mile</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i’m so sorry this took so long, but hey:D here’s chapter 9</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“shut up, hagakure.” togami scoffs as he takes the first step on the stairs, “if i recall correctly, there’s a library up here, correct?”</p><p>“yeah, there is.” fujisaki affirms. </p><p>“then i’ll be there.” he struts on the steps as fukawa tails him closely behind, “didn’t i tell you to never tail behind me?” before she could even respond, he tugs her arm adamantly, but careful not to hurt her. this earns a small, but obvious squeal from her. </p><p>“yer fuckers are way too damn shippy.” owada scowls as everyone else followed them behind. enoshima and kirigiri, however, are still carrying their respective partners. </p><p>“can’t argue with that.” asahina shrugs. </p><p>with all of that aside, they’ve finally reached the new opened floor, or in this case, a whole new world for them. each of them began to depart from one another.</p><p>in the library, as expected, there was togami in the archives, lurking with him was fukawa. </p><p>fumbling with the endless documents in the shelves, togami had never been this excited ever in a long time. he brought out a document that earned his interest. namely, <i>ishimaru.</i></p><p>fukawa, on the other hand was adjacent to togami. she skims through the dusty binders for a specific document, until she found what she’d been looking for. <i>genocider syo.</i></p><p>the two of them sat across from each other in silence as they respectively begin to read what they took out. </p><p>
  <i>ishimaru toranosuke, the 53th and current prime minister of japan. after serving three consecutive four-year terms, public opinion would describe him as the leader who brought japan up with him. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>even with his success and nobility, the public’s once admiration for him would ultimately flip overnight. within the last few weeks, peaceful protests were turned to violent riots and even feeble attempts of assassination were taken. </i>
</p><p><i>after serving the country for more than a decade, during the latter half of his third term, however, undesirable backlash and harsh criticism against him have circulated within the masses. it’s with a scandal that states he was responsible for human experimentation. namely,</i> project kamukura. </p><p>
  <i>despite having enormous influence, the government failed to find who was responsible. let alone discover how the culprit managed to spread its undeniable evidence regarding said project, which ultimately made the rest of the population turn their backs against him. </i>
</p><p><i>the only known intel of the culprit who was responsible for the spread of this scandal is only known as anonymous. it was adapted by their followers (even formed a cult-like fanbase around them) and some would even dub them as</i> anon-chan<i>, being a reference to 4chan where said intel initially came from. </i></p><p>
  <i>with all of this concurring very quickly, the state has billed the country to go under martial law. although it’s still only at its first reading, many fear of what is to come.</i>
</p><p>“huh?” togami’s eyes widened at the last paragraph.</p><p>“what’s wrong?” fukawa inquired, shifting her focus from the file to the scion. </p><p>“come here.” he beckons her to him, to which she crawls to his side. still confused, she sits beside him. </p><p>togami points at the last paragraph and within seconds toko’s eyes were as wide as his. </p><p>“when did this happen? i don’t remember any bill for martial law taking place.” the scion flips through the rest of the document, but served no use as the rest of the file contained no more than descriptions of prime minister ishimaru’s assassination attempts</p><p>“i don’t remember this happening either. i may be a hermit, but i’m in no way a neet.” the author takes the file and flips it back to the first page. she skims (although you wouldn’t really call it skimming considering it is the ultimate writing prodigy) through the binder. </p><p>just then, another figure appears inside the archives. </p><p>“OYA OYA!” this gains the attention of both fukawa and togami. i mean who wouldn’t be surprised if you hear out of the blue that pathetic excuse of a voice? </p><p>immediately monokuma grabs the binder away from toko and retreats to the ladder hiding from the pair. </p><p>“HEY!” fukawa instinctively lunges forward, almost hitting monokuma. the only reason she failed to was because togami held her off by grabbing her waist pulling her back. </p><p>“<i>AGH!</i>” the bear jumps away and hits his metallic head on one of the ladder’s steps. </p><p>“give it back, you monobrat.” the scion scowled, clutching the author close to his chest as he <i>shields</i> her from the bear. </p><p>they hear something from the outside, but couldn’t focus because of monokuma. </p><p>“toko, my dear, that was a close one! if you would’ve hit me, i’m afraid i would’ve gave you a punishment.” stepping away, monokuma’s voice was still very cheery as he climbs up the ladder, “by the way, nobody found your rhyme amusing, byakuya.”</p><p>“what?!” </p><p>“anyway, you won’t be needing this. goodbye, my children!” with that monokuma vanished. </p><p>the heavy silence hung in the air as the pair attempts to collect their thoughts, “that’s just.. great.” the scion trails off attempting to hide his disappointment with his seemingly nonchalant scoffing. but toko notices this and decides to break the silence once more. </p><p>“unlucky for him because i memorized everything that was written there.” fukawa had a small smile as she chuckles lightly. </p><p>then there came light hesitant knocking outside. </p><p> </p><p>meanwhile outside the archives, there was fujisaki, naegi, kirigiri, and enoshima. </p><p>“hey, kirigiri?” naegi inquires as he watches her attempting to boot up the laptop on one of the desks. </p><p>“hm?” she meekly replies as she opens up each of the drawers, searching for something. </p><p>“how come celestia isn’t with you?” </p><p>“what’s that supposed to mean?” the detective asked, but it sounded more like she was intimidating naegi rather than asking a question. </p><p>“woah, woah, i didn’t mean anything bad about it.” naegi nervously laughs as he waves his hands at her. </p><p>“i was kidding.”</p><p>
  <i>it sure didn’t sound like it.</i>
</p><p>“although to answer your question,” she opens another drawer, “i don’t have one.” this time, she took something out. </p><p>“a-are you sure about that?”</p><p>
  <i>a charger.</i>
</p><p>“...”</p><p>kirigiri plugs the port to the laptop and once again disappears as she crouches down searching for an outlet. <i>how convenient of there to be one.</i></p><p>“it’s just that, one moment she’s all over you, then the next she completely ignores you. i don’t follow her inconsistencies.” naegi leans forward to see the detective plug in the adaptor. </p><p>kirigiri stands up and lets out a simple, “oh.” her tone sounds a bit amused, “so you have noticed.” the luckster wasn’t quite sure how to take that backhanded compliment, so he looks at the bright side and unconsciously smiles at it. </p><p>“i mean, it’s either she’s glued to your side and not acknowledge anyone else, or she scurries off with everyone and forgets about your existence entirely.” </p><p>“do pray tell.” </p><p>
  <i>why is this conversation going nowhere?</i>
</p><p>“the fuck is up with you two?” naegi finally snaps to which kirigiri only chuckles at this. </p><p>“i’ll tell ya what’s with them!” a boisterous voice came from across the library, “those fuckers are playing hard to get even if it’s obvious there’s unresolved sexual tension between them!” </p><p>“you <i>heard</i> that?!” </p><p>it actually surprised both naegi and kirigiri that enoshima heard their conversation. whether she was just <i>that</i> a big gossip or she had a keen ear, it’s quite impressive how the model managed to butt in, considering fujisaki seems to be inside her own world. </p><p>“you can’t say i’m wrong, kirigiri.” enoshima devilishly smirks and raises a cocky eyebrow at the detective to which she rolls her eyes at the model. </p><p>“shut up, enoshima.” kirigiri scoffs, but something else also added to her irritation. the laptop wasn’t working. she got up and walked towards fujisaki, as if on cue gives her attention to the detective. she whispers something to the programmer and almost immediately a light in her eyes glimmered. with this, she excitedly nods and hugs kirigiri. this almost takes her off-guard, but she ultimately smiles and hugs her back. </p><p>“now thas sum good kuudere shit.” enoshima sniffles, wiping a tear from her eye. naegi eyes the model suspiciously as his mind trails off. </p><p>
  <i>did she really cry? or did she do that ironically and forced herself to cry?</i>
</p><p>but something else besides enoshima’s dramatization catches the luckster’s eye. between the shelves and above the books, he spots a faint color of white sticking out. he walks toward it and examines it as he gets closer. </p><p>
  <i>an envelope?</i>
</p><p>thankfully, it was at a height where he could reach the envelope. holding it, he notices a red wax seal that reads <i>hope’s peak academy. what is with this harry potter ripoff of an envelope?</i></p><p>he notices the thick layer of dust covering it. <i>it’s probably been dusting there for over a year.</i></p><p>he opens the seal and sets aside the envelope. he pulls out a letter. </p><p>
  <b>
    <i><span class="u">from hope’s peak academy executive office</span>:</i>
  </b>
  <i></i>
</p><p>
  <i>for decades this academy has been committed in shaping the youth who will one day become the hope of the world. with this academy’s long list of alumni taking a part in society for active leadership in every other field, it wouldn’t have ever been possible without the support coming from the japanese government. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>however, due to recent events, hope’s peak academy will close its doors, for the time being. this decision undertook intensive rationalizing and debate before it was ultimately ruled out as the safest and best option for its students and faculty. although this won’t be the end for hope’s peak, as the council intends to reopen its doors once external factors are resolved. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>that being said, as the headmaster, i would personally thank everyone who supported and made this academy what it is today. this won’t be the end of hope’s peak academy, moreover, this institution will once again rise with the students as the brand new hope for this world. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>signed, headmas—</i>
</p><p>“signed, headmaster what?” <i>how awfully convenient for</i> that <i>part of the letter to be ripped off.</i></p><p>“headmaster?” kirigiri inquired, walking towards naegi. she sees him hold a single piece of paper with a small rip at its corner. </p><p>“<i>external factors?!</i>” naegi almost crumples the paper as the letter was taken out of his hands by the detective. </p><p>“careful. you don’t want to tamper so much with lying evidence.” kirigiri reads the letter and moments after she was feeling the same confusion the luckster had, only difference being she managed to not let it show. </p><p>“hey, harem protag, kuudere, why’re you at the corner?” enoshima takes notice of the pair. she dramatically gasps and mockingly, she says, “ARE YOU TWO MAKING OUT IN THE CORNER? YOU’LL BET YOUR ASSES I’LL BE GETTING CELESTE MYSELF JUST TO GET EVEN!” </p><p>“junko, shut the fuck up and get your ass over here.” </p><p>“NOW MY DEAR MAKOTO’S INITIATING A THREESOME?!” the model once again makes a dramatic face as she walks up to the pair and beckons fujisaki to come as well. walking excruciatingly slow was stupidly effectively in getting the response she wanted, “can’t say i’m opposed to that!” </p><p>“oh lord, my virgin ears, have mercy.” fujisaki visibly cringes as she tails behind enoshima. </p><p>“no.” the model flatly replies. </p><p>with this, kirigiri places the letter down on the table for the two of them to read. </p><p>a few moments pass and the mockery within enoshima’s face disappeared and fujisaki merely stands there dumbfounded. </p><p>“<i>EH?!</i>” enoshima inches her face closer to the table. she reads it again, this time her finger following with every word. </p><p>“s-so does that mean we’re really stuck here? because the school closed in on us?” fujisaki meekly asks, seemingly hoping she’d get an answer of no. </p><p>“that seems to be the situation at hand.” kirigiri lightly nods and sighs, “anyway, we better inform togami and fukawa about this.” </p><p>“yeah, you’re right.” with that, naegi walks up to the archives’ door, gently knocking. that’s when he hears something from the inside, cluttering. </p><p>
  <i>what in the hell could they be doing in there?</i>
</p><p>he knocks again with a slightly confused expression and this time he hears muffling sounds of... <i>writhing clothes?</i></p><p>
  <i>wait. don’t tell me they’re— NO!</i>
</p><p>“junko, you open the door for me.” </p><p>“can’t. too busy having an existential crisis.” </p><p>“k-kirigiri?” </p><p>“naegi,” she sighs once again, but she walks toward him anyway and knocks, “it’s not that hard to knock again and—“ she stops, “oh my sweet lord jesus, what the <i>hell</i> are they doing?”</p><p>“whatever you do, fujisaki, don’t come near here.” </p><p>“don’t have any plans to. i’ve been hearing that for the past ten minutes.”</p><p>“AND YOU NEVER TOLD US?” </p><p>“why the bloody hell are you imbeciles so noisy for?” then there came a frustrated togami by the door meeting with a very disturbed kirigiri and an eery naegi. </p><p>“togami,” the luckster peeps in to see fukawa cleaning up, looking very confused at the commotion. </p><p>“<i>what?</i>” the scion spat with a very prominent scowl in his face. </p><p>“what are you doing with fukawa inside..?”</p><p>“what do you mean what were we doing insi—“ then he realized what the luckster meant and the scowl on his face disappears replacing one of disgust, “<i>how preposterous of you, naegi! the very fact that you’d think i’d engage in extracurricular activities in such a very inappropriate time and place, honestly makes me disgu—</i>“</p><p>“togami, shut the fuck up and get your ass over here.” enoshima spits out, her loudmouth overpowering the scion’s and gains the attention of everyone in the library. </p><p>“what she said.” fujisaki points one hand at the model and the other beckoning them to come closer. </p><p>“hey! you can’t just go on with stealing my lines!” naegi retorts, but only to be shot down almost immediately. </p><p>“naegi, shut the fuck up and your ass over here.” </p><p>“<i>i—</i> yes, ma’am.” </p><p>wordlessly, the four obey junko anyway. </p><p> </p><p>outside the pool’s changing rooms, there were ishimaru, asahina, and celestia inspecting every inch of the room, at least asahina was. </p><p>“ARE THESE DUMBBELLS? TREADMILLS? STEPPERS? PULLEYS? WEIGHTS? CRUNCHERS?” the swimmer said as she excitedly went over to view every piece of equipment, “<i>AND</i> BALLS?!”</p><p>ishimaru nudges closer to the gambler, speaking in a low voice, “celestia, do you have any idea of what she’s talking about?” </p><p>“HELL TO THE YES!” asahina jumps around, a seemingly unbreakable smile plastered on her face, “SAKURA WOULD BE SO STOKED SEEING ALL OF THESE!” </p><p>“i haven’t the slightest clue.” celestia replies as she observes asahina’s excited jumping turn to punches thrown in the air. </p><p>“I WONDER IF THEY HAVE GYM CANDY OVER HERE!” </p><p>“AOI! WE HAVE NO TOLERANCE FOR THAT IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT!” at first hearing those words, you’d think it came from an aggravated ishimaru, but when the swimmer turns to the voice,</p><p>“m-monokuma?”</p><p>“now, do you see how monokuma keeps on stealing my lines?” the prefect sighs at the sight of the bear. </p><p>“that’s not what’s important right now, kiyotaka! what we should focus on right now is aoi’s apparent liking for <i>candy.</i>” monokuma stomps his feet and his head bobbing around, “you all are so reckless! what the fuck is wrong with you, guys?”</p><p>“i was kidding. <i>sheesh!</i> like <i>you’re</i> the one to talk.” </p><p>“even if you were or you weren’t, there seems to be quite a bit of recreational mediums inside this academy,” celestia remarks, pacing around the room or rather around monokuma, “albeit your choice of weed and cigarettes are rather.. <i>unique</i>, chances are there are <i>supplements</i> around here.”</p><p>“WAIT SERIOUSLY?!”</p><p>“ah, there it is.” the gambler clicks her tongue more out of delight than anything, “i didn’t think you weren’t actually kidding.” she laughs quite eloquently. </p><p>asahina was about to be offended by this, but then celeste says something again, “although i can’t blame you for your tastes, honestly, must it be so hard for monokuma to spare a bottle or two of what he parches with every morning?” </p><p>“a bottle? how bold of you, celestia.” monokuma gazes at the students with a tilted head, “anyway! that’s not why i came over here. i don’t intend to stop whatever vices you guys have!”</p><p>“then why <i>did</i> you come here?” ishimaru remarks. his tone was a bit more apprehensive to anybody’s liking. not after what happened over in a course of 24-hours, with owada decking him, two of his classmates dying, and another close call at the gym. it was expected. </p><p>“now, now, no need to be hasty, kiyotaka.” monokuma waves his paws at the prefect, “<i>anyway.</i> you see these doors, right?” the bear points at the double doors equipped with a card reader. </p><p>they all nod. </p><p>“now, to enter, you just gotta scan your electroid and bam! it’s a changing room!” </p><p>“like we haven’t figured out that already.” the prefect scoffs. he’s been more short-tempered recently. but who could blame him? </p><p>monokuma chose to ignore that, “but there’s something else, you can also lock it with your id’s! you know, just to prevent any kind of pervert peeping in from the outside.” </p><p>“for what? there is <i>no</i> one in this class who’d ever do such a thing!” the prefect was growing more and more irritated. </p><p>“well, we did think no one would kill anyone...” asahina trails off, remembering sayaka and leon. the memory of those two randomly posing romantic gestures at each other, it was a sight they’d definitely miss. the oddly disgustingly cute couple, gone. </p><p>“it’s just a precaution! although i won’t stop any of you children being all lovey dovey with each other, now that’s none of my business!” </p><p>“now that’s, <i>comforting</i>, to say the least.” celestia remarks rather sarcastically and sighs. with this, she walks up to the card reader and brings out her id for it to scan. then a <i>click</i> emitted out from the reader and soon the double doors open to reveal a plain, but reasonable decorated changing room. </p><p>“huh, how boring.” </p><p>“oh yeah, i forgot to mention what’s beyond the changing room isn’t a gym. it’s a pool!” and while on cue, he turns his back and disappears. </p><p>upon hearing the word <i>pool</i>, asahina ran inside to open the door, and by then they heard a loud splash with a trail of clothes were left on her tracks. </p><p> </p><p>in the classrooms, there was ogami, owada, hagakure, and yamada. </p><p>“ogami, give me a chair.” owada flatly says with the fighter complying. chair in hand, the gangster lifts the chair and swings it against the metal plates. </p><p>“HEY YOU GOTTA BETTER YOUR AIM. YOU ALMOST HIT ME THAT TIME.” hagakure jumps out of his seat, barely avoiding the flying pieces of scrap wood. </p><p>“that’s what i was going for.” the gangster replies with a heavy sigh, “damnit. these are shut tight. plus who the hell melted the bolts in?” </p><p>“master owada mondo, presumably it was another safety measure to keep us insi—“</p><p>“<i>says who i asked for an answer?</i>” owada cuts him off with his signature snarl that edges off the doujin author. </p><p>“f-forgive me, master! i-i-i didn’t mean to i-interrupt you. i,” he kneels down to the gangster with his hands clasped. </p><p>owada notices something different with the way his fingers intertwined together. <i>1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. oh yeah,</i> that <i>happened.</i> “yeah yeah, whatever. just shut yer trap with all the bullshit woulda? stand up. nobody wants to see you begging like that.” </p><p>with that yamada stands up and bows his head, “i-i, thank you, master oowada.” </p><p>“didn’t i just—“</p><p>“owada, it’s hopeless. let him be.” ogami remarks as the gangster was just about to explode again. </p><p>with this, owada lets out another heavy sigh, “i figured if we found windows with <i>actual</i> removable bolts, we’d have a chance to escape through the window, but these are shut in <i>sealed.</i>”</p><p>“it’s not worth the extra effort, corncob!” </p><p>“<b>eh?</b> say that again, you fucker and you’ll be in for a <i>nice</i> beating.” owada couldn’t see who the voice belonged to nor knew who it belonged to. it sounded like a poor impression of his voice, which only made him angrier. </p><p>“it’s not worth yer time, <i>ya delinquent!</i>” </p><p>“ALRIGHT THEN. YOU ASKED FOR IT.” the gangster turns around, fists in place, then his face falters at the sight of monokuma. the one person, or whatever the fuck he was, he couldn’t actually deck. </p><p>“if you were hagakure, we would’ve held <i>another</i> class trial.” owada growls at the bear, who seems to be enjoying every second of this. </p><p>“listen! i’ve never been this nosy. like, <i>ever.</i> it’s like you all are <i>always</i> coming up with stupid boring schemes to escape. do something <i>interesting</i> that <i>doesn’t</i> break the rules!” monokuma paces around the room as the students just watch him, “you can’t escape either way. take it from me, don’t waste your time with menial labor.” he turns his back one last time, “anyway, <i>bayonara, bitches!</i>” and then he disappears. </p><p>“first of all, not cool, dude.” the clairvoyant was rummaging through the teachers desk, “second, don’t be so down, owads.” it looks like he found something. </p><p>“<b>oh</b> and <i>why</i> the hell not?” </p><p>“because i found these.” hagakure had a huge smile plastered on his face as he presents two decks of playing cards. </p><p>with this, owada’s face lights up, “<i>oh fuck yeah!</i>”</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>it’s nearing 8pm, almost time for their evening meeting. as usual, ishimaru was already there waiting, but this time he was accompanied with celestia and asahina. </p><p>asahina, however, her hair was still visibly wet, but she seems to be in a good mood. even ishimaru had joined her and his salty mood had disappeared from his being. he also looks much more replenished and was in a relatively better mood as well. </p><p>after much, <i>much</i> insistence from both, mostly on asahina’s part, the pair managed to convince celestia to join them as well. little did ishimaru know, she actually had fake drills, but asahina already knew that. </p><p>the gambler seems to had enjoyed herself and their company, even if there’s no way in hell she’d admit to it. although this never stopped the other two to just accept it and count it as a win. </p><p>a few minutes passed, although still a little early to be 8pm, another group came. there arrived enoshima, as per usual, along with naegi, kirigiri, fujisaki, togami, and fukawa. </p><p>“good evening, comrades.” ishimaru greets the six as he gestures them to their seats. </p><p>kirigiri takes the seat across from celestia, placing her elbows on the table. she eyes her intensely from head to chest, chest to head. then she fixates her gaze to the gambler’s face. </p><p>“yes, detective?” celestia could’ve sworn she saw her flinch, but it seems like she hasn’t(?) <i>damnit.</i> “is something the matter?”</p><p>“did something happen? you three look like you’re in a relatively good mood.” kirigiri tilts her head, gaze never leaving celestia’s face. </p><p>“you say, you three, yet you’ve only looked at me.” the gambler scoffs, hoping to get a reaction out of her. <i>none. how stubborn.</i></p><p>“well, it’s not really that relevant to the meeting, but if you wanna know kirigiri, we were—“ ishimaru starts, but gets interrupted by celestia. </p><p>“ishimaru, let her guess.” with this, it earns the internet of the detective. <i>good girl.</i></p><p>“very well then. considering asahina’s hair is still wet, it’s only safe to assume she’d been in the water prior to about half an hour ago. what are the possible scenarios as to why? one, would be she was in the shower. however, the chances that are low since you are with ishimaru of all people. i’d imagine he’d want all of you in punctual attendance since you did join him for the day. two, a pool. since this school is big, it’s not impossible for it to house one. it was a shot in the dark on my part, but with her talent being a swimmer, yes that would make more sense as to what she’d be doing rather than with situation one. since you three relatively have the same expression of relaxation, one can only deduce you, celestia, and you, ishimaru, joined her too.” </p><p>“that was, <i>amazing.</i>” asahina takes slight pause between <i>was</i> and <i>amazing</i> as her expression from being dumbfounded turns to of amusement. </p><p>“she even deduced that celestia and i also joined in..” ishimaru trails off as well. </p><p>“i’d expect no less from my detective.” celestia allows a small smirk to creep up on her face, one that she was sure only kirigiri would see. </p><p>“i am not a detective.” with this, kirigiri relaxes on her seat, removing her gaze from celestia. </p><p>“deny all you want, detective. situations such as these are only bound to get worse by denying.” the gambler places her elbows on the table, inching her face as close as possible to her (despite there being a literal table between them, it somehow worked).</p><p>“you have no proof that i am one. my mind is not going to change, not unless you prove me otherwise.” kirigiri’s expression grows intense (even if it wasn’t obvious, the gambler still caught on) as she furrows her eyebrows ever so slightly. </p><p>“ah fuck, there they go again.” asahina hits the table as she lets out another sigh. </p><p>“things were actually <i>getting</i> good! why would you dare to interrupt them like that?” </p><p>“woah i get hina’s swearing, but kawa of <i>all</i> people? i would’ve thought you hated cliche tropes.” hagakure speaks up and with him came the rest, ogami, owada, and yamada. </p><p>“those two won’t stop bickering about each other. god, i <i>hate</i> unresolved sexual tension.” the swimmer just shrugs at this. </p><p>“as much as i don’t like cliches, i do take enjoyment when it’s actually happening in reality.” fukawa admits, shrinking back in her seat. </p><p>“oh yeah hear, here.” togami knocks on the table twice and before they knew it, enoshima, naegi, fukawa, and ishimaru were doing it as well. </p><p>“just get a room already! i don’t need this. nobody needs this.” owada tsk’s at this. </p><p>“actually, i wouldn’t really mind if they—“ yamada starts, but gets interrupted by an elbow to his chest by the gangster.</p><p>“SHUT YER TRAP, HENTAI.” </p><p>“well, good evening to you four as well. please take your seat.” ishimaru greets them and gestures them to take a seat, still careful of leaving kuwata and maizono’s seats untouched and empty. </p><p>once everybody has settled down, ishimaru speaks up, “alright! the 8pm meeting will now commence.”</p><p>the meeting went on as usual, it first started with togami discussing about the information they had of what was going on outside. with little information they had, they figured prime minister ishimaru toranosuke most likely had something to do with this, much to kiyotaka’s dismay. nonetheless the prefect still took it with upmost integrity and respect. </p><p>next to the stand was naegi’s discovery of the letter from their headmaster. from what they’ve gathered, the letter was around a year old, with confirmation from other parties as well. although what didn’t add up to them was why was it sitting there for a year, if it’s only been about a few months since the start of japan’s fall. ultimately, the conversation drifted to conspiracy theories and of hagakure’s readings. nobody really payed attention to the clairvoyant’s readings, but one stated that they were the result of this <i>project kamukura.</i> sounds ridiculous to everyone’s ears, but a few select still took note of this. </p><p>after this, ishimaru now took the stand to report what they found in the gym turned changing room turned pool. even though they barely did anything else after monokuma’s appearance, he still made look like they’ve researched the place for hours when in reality they almost immediately jumped straight to the pool. </p><p>lastly, it was owada who took the stand. although they barely did discover anything else either, as they spent most of their time punching, kicking, hitting, hexing (mostly on hagakure’s part) the windows, but to no avail. </p><p>however they all realized something with their encounters, out of four of those who took the stand, three of them had encounters with monokuma at around the same time and noticed he was in a hurry. presumably from appearing here and there dividing his attention to everyone. </p><p>alas, it was barely 9pm when the meeting was finally adjourned. everyone was finished with dinner and there none left to discuss. just when ishimaru was about to dismiss everyone, hagakure speaks up. </p><p>“hey guys, guess what?” </p><p>“what? you found more pot?” enoshima spits out, watching the clairvoyant fumbling in his pockets. </p><p>“i wish i did!” he admits as he takes out something from his pockets, “but this should be better than nothing!” two sealed packets of, </p><p>“deck cards?” celestia’s interest was peaked, “give me those.” she said almost demandingly, but who could blame her? she was the ultimate gambler after all. </p><p>hagakure complies and slides the packages to her on the table. in turn she gracefully takes one of them and breaks the seal with the metallic claw on her right index finger in one swift clean cut. </p><p>“so that’s what <i>that</i> was for.” asahina comments as she watches celestia do the same with the other. </p><p>“not necessarily.” she opens one of them and begins to do a trick shuffle with the cards as everyone’s eyes were now focused on her hands, “now’s not the time for that endeavor.” </p><p>she takes a look at the clock, <i>8:51</i>, “why you may ask? we’re playing poker.”
</p><p><br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>
  <i>“you suckers seem to enjoying every bit of this and i’m not having it!”</i>
</p><p> <i>“don’t tell me you’re planning to—“</i></p><p> <i>“oh hell yeah i am! i don’t like hope. not one bit.” </i></p><p> <i>“it’s been barely a day since the trial. don’t you think that’s a bit hasty?”</i></p><p> <i>“that’s the whole point. i can’t have them enjoy themselves too much.”</i></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. tragedies invoke catharses</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hello, i’m so sorry this took so long. from those two weeks, i’ve been hospitalized, so i really couldn’t do much. i’m still admitted, but i’ve gotten my motivation back! and i’m going to admit something here, i didn’t know how poker works so i really did learn how to play just so i can write this chapter properly. </p><p>just a few notes first because this is indeed a chapter about poker so here’s a bit of terminology: </p><p><i>suit</i> hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades<br/><i>rank</i> A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 </p><p>these are the acts,</p><p><i>to fold</i> is to not participate in a round<br/><i>to raise</i> is to raise the bet to __ (when you raise, you must at least double the last aggressive action/bet)<br/><i>to call the bet</i> means betting the same amount as the last player did<br/><i>to check</i> means letting other players act first, then go back to you in the end</p><p>as for hands’ strength (strongest to weakest)</p><p><i>royal flush</i> same suit, A, K, Q, J, 10<br/><i>straight flush</i> same suit, five card sequence<br/><i>four of a kind</i> four cards with the same rank<br/><i>full house</i> three of a kind and a pair<br/><i>flush</i> any five cards with the same suit<br/><i>straight</i> five card sequence regardless of suit<br/><i>three of a kind</i> three cards with the same rank<br/><i>two pairs</i> two sets of cards with equal ranks<br/><i>pair</i> two cards with equal ranks<br/><i>high card</i> no combination, ranked by the highest card</p><p>i hope that clears things off:)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“gambling is not permitted in a school environment!” ishimaru blurts out, perfectly gaining the twelve individual scowls from his classmates. with that kind of reaction, he hesitates for a while before concluding with a sigh, “but, for now i will let it slide.”</p><p>“that settles it then.” by this time, celestia had already finished shuffling cards and she stacks the cards on the table. the gambler plasters a devilish smirk and clasps her hands on the table. she eyes each of her classmates. her accent thick as ever, she continues, “now, who wants to gamble with me?” </p><p>awaiting for an answer, she sees the hesitant faces of asahina, fujisaki, naegi, and yamada. <i>that was to be expected.</i></p><p>she looks around the table more, there were the faces that showed interest, togami, enoshima, owada, ogami, and hagakure. </p><p>as for the rest, they relatively had no expression as if to say, <i>i don’t want any part of this.</i> those were of fukawa, ishimaru, and kirigiri. <i>kirigiri. there’s no way in the 13 brackets of hell you’re not playing.</i></p><p>“count me in. takes me back to where the gang and when we used to bet who’ll be doing the dirty work.” owada says as be relaxes on his seat. </p><p>“i’ll be joining as well.” togami huffs with a smile of amusement resting on his face. </p><p>“<i>well</i> if you, suckers are joining, don’t leave me out of it!” enoshima scoffs as she crosses her arms on her chest. </p><p>“i don’t look like it, but i know other card games out of tarot cards.” hagakure plasters a cheeky smile as he joins in. </p><p>“in my time in the mountains, we had nothing better to do. i’ll be joining too.” ogami lightly nods. </p><p>“six.” celestia pauses for a while before she lets out a heavy sigh looking down on the table, “how boring.” </p><p>“aren’t six players more than enough though?” asahina asks, innocence reeking out. </p><p>“six is the number of imperfection and of lucifer. we’re one short to perfection.” the gambler dramatically sighs as she taps her fingers one by one on the table, “this is such a travesty. what will we ever do?” </p><p>“i say suck it up and deal with it! aren’t ya lucifer yourself or something? so what’s the big deal?” owada bickers as he rolls his eyes at her. </p><p>“just when i thought you couldn’t get any dumber than you already are.” enoshima groans with a disapproving head shake. </p><p>“WHAT DID YE <b>FUCKEN</b> SAY?!” the gangster immediately raises up his defenses. already standing up with his fists armed, he growls and everybody internally shrinks down to their seats. </p><p>“just shut up and i’ll join.” kirigiri sighs as she clutches her forehead. it’s been a long day and she doesn’t think she can take any more bullshit from <i>anybody.</i></p><p>“oh? that would be perfection, detective!” </p><p>“you’re not even offering me gum, so i don’t see what’s <i>perfection</i> about it.” </p><p>“gum?” owada asks as he shakes his head in confusion. </p><p>“you wouldn’t even get it even if i told you.” naegi replies with a disappointing sigh. </p><p>“what?!” </p><p>“everybody, shut up.” togami slams his hands on the table, successfully shutting everyone up, “we need chips to play poker.” </p><p>“i got it.” celestia nods at the scion, “yamada?” then turns her head to the doujin writer. </p><p>“m-me, master celestia ludenberg?” he inquires nervously. </p><p>“get us some paper clips from the storage room. there are some lying hidden in a box, if i recall correctly.” the gambler’s voice was soft, not really demanding, but it was more of an order than it was a request. </p><p>“wait. why m-me though? can’t you get it yourself?” he stumbles a bit in his words. he looks at everyone, hoping to find an answer, but to no avail. they just look confused and conflicted. </p><p>“just get us the paper clips, won’t you, dear?” the slightest tinge of annoyance bleeds out of her voice. it wouldn’t take a detective to know she’s going to lose her patience soon. </p><p>“why don’t you have someone else get it for y—“ </p><p>“<i><b>SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET US THE GODDAMNED PAPER CLIPS, YOU PIG.</b></i>” that voice was shrill. devoid of her accent. all eloquence and softness eradicated with a voice that pierced through everyone’s ears. to top it all off, it even managed to make the <i>unshakables</i> crack. </p><p>“AAAAAAAAAGH! OKAY MASTER CELESTIA LUDENBERG, I’LL GET YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT.” he gets up on his seat and bows quickly before running, even stumbling, towards the door. </p><p>celestia giggles softly with a hand on her mouth. she watches the horrified faces of her classmates as yamada exits. </p><p>an awkward silence was hanging in the air and no one dared to speak a word. what the fuck just happened? until moments later it was broken by the double doors slamming shut. </p><p>breaking the silence once again, celestia clears her throat and lets out a soft “pardonnez moi.” back again with her smooth coated voice. </p><p>“lucifer here sure can scream. that’s all i can say.” owada hesitatingly adds, expecting for <i>another</i> devilish screech from her. much to his and everyone’s avail, she didn’t do that. </p><p> </p><p>“hm. it’s been a whole thirty seconds and yamada still hasn’t returned.” she shrugs coupled with her returned thick accent as if nothing happened. she sighs in disappointment, “how pitiful.” </p><p>as if on cue, the double doors once again open. there came a out of breath yamada holding a box barging inside. he walks towards to the table and lays the box down, “h-h-here you go, m-master celest-tia lu-huh-denberg.” </p><p>celestia eyes the box that was being passed on the table, opposite where she sat. it came in the hands of fukawa, togami, and kirigiri respectively. </p><p>“i would prefer if you didn’t butcher my surname as such.” the gambler says, but she seems to be focusing on someone else rather than yamada. she observes kirigiri open the box and digs a gloved hand inside. the detective removes her hand out, letting the multi-colored paper clips fallback. </p><p>once kirigiri was done with the box, she pushes it back to celestia, who was directly in front of her. </p><p>“hm. let’s see.” the gambler takes it. she digs her hand in and sets a white paper clip on the table, “one.”</p><p>seems simple enough right? one yen. </p><p>then a red paper clip, “five.”</p><p>five yen isn’t something you’d cry over for. </p><p>blue, “ten.”</p><p>not with ten either. </p><p>green, “twenty-five.”</p><p>twenty-five? not really, but a loss is a loss. what’s good about this is that it’s almost perfect for a game of poker between them. </p><p>black, “one hundred.”</p><p>at one hundred, that’s when a few faces of worry surfaced. a few gasps were heard as the black paper clip was set on the table with the others. </p><p>purple, “five hundred.”</p><p>losing a couple hundred yen? it looks like it’s something people would actually cry for. they’re getting increasingly worried as the stakes keep on getting higher. </p><p>yellow, “one thousand.”</p><p>a thousand yen? you could buy yourself a couple manga, or drinks, or food, or whatever the fuck else you’re into. it’s definitely a lot. </p><p>pink, “five thousand.”</p><p>“hold the fuck up there for a bit, luci. what the <i>hell</i> are you doing?” at the mention of <i>five thousand</i> that’s when owada broke. the thought of losing more than just a couple hundreds, but to <i>thousands</i> horrified him. </p><p>but celestia wasn’t done just yet. </p><p>orange, “ten thousand.”</p><p>“<i>TEN THOUSAND?</i>” the gangster slams his hands on the table, slightly disrupting the order of paper clips on the table. what he disrupted wasn’t limited to the clips alone, definitely not with his loudmouth. </p><p>“is something the matter, dear? i could go on to fifty thousand if that’s what you’re worried about.” </p><p><i>a bluff mixed with a bit of truth.</i> kirigiri’s sure it was. amidst of all of the suspense brought by these small pieces of bent metal, unlike others, she was stuck focusing on watching celestia’s body language and only half paying attention to the rising stakes. </p><p>“i know i wouldn’t mind.” there came another voice, togami’s. </p><p>“shut up, you rich twink. not everyone here is as spoiled as you are.” the spiteful voice of enoshima gains the attention of everyone. </p><p>of course togami wasn’t going to back down, he refutes, “ah yes, says the nationwide famous model.”</p><p>“i-i,” the model stammers in her words as if she’s been beaten to a pulp. </p><p>“yeah! i mean, <i>look</i> at me!” hagakure joins in, he points to himself. everyone seems to get the message. </p><p>this unsuspecting chatter, or dare i say, banter, seems to keep on going with no end. that is when a certain voice spoke up. it was loud, but firm. </p><p>“can’t we just settle with the 500 mark limit? not everyone here has those kind of funds.” kirigiri wasn’t exactly contributing to the bantering, so her voice resurfacing in the room cut through everyone’s ears. she ends her sentence with a heavy sigh. </p><p>“hm. perhaps that seems fair.” celestia chimes in first. </p><p>“good enough for me!” hagakure agrees with her. </p><p>“i guess i could settle with that.” togami scoffs, but he nods at this. </p><p>“yeah, yeah, whatever.” owasa readjusts himself on his seat as he plasters a small smile. </p><p>“i could do that.” ogami crosses her arms and nods as well. </p><p>“uhhhhhh, if everyone’s in, don’t leave me out!” enoshima hesitates for a bit, before giving up and joining in anyway. </p><p>with all of that settled, there’s still something missing, a dealer. however, celestia has a solution for this, “ishimaru, dear?” </p><p>snapping out of his thoughts, “yes?” the prefect is back to his usual uptight demeanor. it seems he’s been more out of it lately. </p><p>“you wouldn’t mind being the dealer here now, would you?” there’s something with celestia’s silky smooth voice that just can’t be helped, but to obey to her every whim. seems entrancing, of royalty, that just rolls off to your ears. maybe kirigiri was just getting out of it. </p><p>“hm, it seems that i’m not even gambling myself, so i guess it’s fine.” ishimaru nods. he reaches his hand out for the deck. celestia passes it to her left. from asahina to ogami to naegi, it’s in the hands of the prefect already. </p><p>with the 500 mark limit, it wouldn’t hurt if she gave everybody each 3000 worth of chips. it’s very low in her standards, but she could deal with it just as long as she could gamble. oh how much she has missed this. </p><p>each player was given three purples (1500), seven blacks (700), twenty-four greens (600), thirteen blues (130), twelve reds (60), ten whites (10). </p><p>how did they <i>not</i> run out of clips? ask naegi, he’s the one who gave out the chips. maybe his luck blessed upon his classmates. </p><p>ishimaru, seated at the edge of the table, began dealing cards to the players. </p><p>at his left was enoshima. she bets 2 blue chips. ¥20. the next player to her left was owada. he bets 4 blue chips. ¥40. </p><p>next to him was kirigiri, with ¥40 being the minimum bet, she lays out 4 blue chips as well. </p><p>it was now togami’s turn, he raises the bet to ¥80. he lays down 2 greens and 3 blues. </p><p>across the other side of the table, hagakure calls togami’s bet, and sets out 2 greens and 3 blues as well. ¥80. </p><p>next to him was celestia. she raises the bet again to ¥160, this time with 1 black, 2 greens, and 1 blue. </p><p>“woah, <i>woah</i>, <b>WOAH</b>. mr. perfect hasn’t even laid out the cards yet and we’re already at 160?” owada was getting worried. seeing the amount of chips/clips at the center of the table increasing, it was an intimidating sight indeed. </p><p>celestia didn’t respond to this, instead she lets out a small giggle as she puts down her cards on the table. </p><p>the last player was ogami, she calls celestia’s bet and sets out the chips as hers. ¥160. </p><p>then there comes the check and turn, </p><p>enoshima calls the bet. </p><p>owada calls the bet. </p><p>kirigiri checks. </p><p>togami calls the bet. </p><p>hagakure calls the bet. </p><p>celestia checks. </p><p>ogami checks. </p><p>kirigiri calls the bet as well. </p><p>with that, the pot was raised to an easy ¥960. ishimaru then lays out the first three community cards. </p><p>
  <i><b>jack of spades</b>. <b>two of hearts</b>. <b>four of spades</b>.</i>
</p><p>the flop cards have been dealt. with this, there goes class 78’s <i>very giving looks.</i> you could almost tell if they had good cards just by looking at their either cocky or disappointed faces. </p><p>enoshima folds. </p><p>owada bets ¥50. </p><p>kirigiri calls the bet. </p><p>togami raises the bet to ¥100.</p><p>hagakure calls the bet. </p><p>celestia calls the bet. </p><p>ogami folds. </p><p>then as fast as that went, they came back to the check and turn,</p><p>owada calls the bet. </p><p>kirigiri calls the bet. </p><p>togami checks. </p><p>hagakure checks. </p><p>celestia checks. </p><p>five players left out of seven. it seems like some these people aren’t backing out so easily. <i>must i raise again?</i></p><p>there is ¥1460 in the pot. ishimaru deals the river, the fourth community card. </p><p>
  <i>jack of spades. two of hearts. four of spades. <b>two of clubs</b>.</i>
</p><p>owada raises the bet to ¥60.</p><p>kirigiri calls the bet. </p><p>togami calls the bet. </p><p>hagakure calls the bet. </p><p>celestia raises the bet to ¥200.</p><p>with celestia’s aggressive action, she finally got her classmates where she wanted. <i>worried, intimidated, and scared.</i></p><p>but there was something else that was bothering her, out of everyone in the table, there still seems to be someone who manages to keep their cool. no matter how much aggressive of an action she took, kirigiri never seems to falter. </p><p>even togami, who you’d think who can keep a straight face, gave the subtle hints of cockiness. after all, he was groomed to be the best, if not best, good at almost everything. he’s a jack of all trades one might say. he’s not some kind of invincible king, although to others’ eyes, he could be. </p><p>they’re back to check and turn, </p><p>owada calls the bet. </p><p>kirigiri calls the bet. </p><p>togami calls the bet. </p><p>hagakure folds. </p><p>celestia checks. </p><p>¥2120 was now in the pot. almost doubling last rounds. the stakes are getting higher. ishimaru deals the river, the last community card. </p><p>
  <i>jack of spades. two of hearts. four of spades. two of clubs. <b>four of clubs</b>.</i>
</p><p>here comes the final showdown,</p><p>owada bets ¥40.</p><p>kirigiri calls the bet. </p><p>togami raises the bet to ¥80.</p><p>celestia raises the bet to ¥250.</p><p>with the last aggressive action, owada finally seems to break. he subtly groans. it’s not something everyone would hear, but you could see his lips quiver ever so slightly. not to mention his other tells. he tends to scratch his neck, if he’s done for, and he smirks if he has a good hand. <i>hm.</i></p><p>the last check and turn of the game, </p><p>owada folds. </p><p>kirigiri checks. </p><p>togami calls the bet. </p><p>celestia checks. </p><p>kirigiri folds. </p><p>
  <i>what was that for, detective? checking just to see if togami is brave enough to deal?</i>
</p><p>with kirigiri folding, togami’s level cockiness seem to increase. the smirk on his face getting wider as he stifles himself from chuckling. </p><p>with the last round finally coming to an end, the pot has a total of ¥2700. quite measly, if you ask celestia, but was still a gamble nonetheless. </p><p>“that’s the end of the last round, comrades.” ishimaru states, “celestia, may you now show your hand?” </p><p>
  <i>jack of spades. two of hearts. four of spades. two of clubs. four of clubs.</i>
</p><p>“four of a kind.” she simply says, her signature poker face still on as she lays down her cards. </p><p><i>four of hearts</i> and <i>four of diamonds.</i></p><p>“what? no. that <i>can’t</i> be.” togami stares dumbfounded at her hand. </p><p>“hm? but it is. come on now, don’t be shy to lay down <i>your</i> hand, dear.” celestia speaks of concern, but something about that even triggers togami. <i>mockery. condescension.</i> it was meta and he hated it. </p><p>togami just sighs at this and meekly says, “full house.” as he lays out his cards. </p><p><i>jack of clubs</i> and <i>two of spades.</i></p><p>with this, celestia plasters a soft smile and slides the chips to her table. in total, she has ¥4990. </p><p>“it looks like it’s going to be a long night, comrades!” ishimaru claps and he begins to reshuffle the cards once more. </p><p> </p><p>after a couple of games later, most of which celestia won. although, there were some games where others won, but no one has yet to beat her in the final showdown. usually, others just won because she didn’t play at all and folded at the first round. at other times, others won because celestia folds last minute, defaulting them as the winner. </p><p>although there was something else. she only did that with one person. was it intentional? was it of pity? kirigiri thought so. but nonetheless, it was a good feeling to win every once in a while. even if it was of pity. </p><p>it was already nearing midnight, way past nighttime and they even averted to their self-acclaimed nighttime rule. celestia didn’t mind much because she was gambling. </p><p>it was the showdown and the only players left were celestia and kirigiri. </p><p>“i fold.” the gambler says, eyeing her hand first before discarding the cards in the muck. </p><p>“don’t fold on me out of pity, celestia.” kirigiri snaps as she lays down her cards. </p><p>
  <i>high card.</i>
</p><p>“<i>a high card?</i> you bet a thousand on a high card?” celestia eyes her hand. she grows increasingly confused with her intentions, “what was <i>that</i> for, detective?”</p><p>“hm. how pitiful of you celeste. i would’ve thought you’ve known better by now.” togami sighs, “that’s it, it almost midnight i better get going. come on, toko.” with that togami stands up with fukawa closely by his side. </p><p>“okay! i guess that’s a wrap. come on, eggy.” before the luckster could even reply, he was flung onto junko’s shoulders once again. <i>how the hell did she do that? wasn’t i, sitting?!</i></p><p>“are you seriously going to do this every time?” naegi completely gives up in trying to resist at this point as the pair slowly make their way out. </p><p>“shut up. it’s just a precautionary measure.”</p><p>with that everyone else started to stand up and leave. one by one, the cafeteria was getting empty. until it was just two people left inside. </p><p>“i see you haven’t moved an inch since the last game.” kirigiri inquires as she observes celestia way too hard. </p><p>“neither have you. before we do or say anything else, excuse me for a second.” what the hell could she mean about that? kirigiri’s thoughts went from innocent to <i>anything else that can be implied.</i> she almost shivers at the thought, but much to her surprise celestia just faces at the doors and says, “ishimaru, dear, i know you’re eavesdropping. would you be so kind to leave us?” </p><p>“i am not eavesdropping! i’m supposed to be the last to leave, but i’ll make another exception tonight. i am very tired. so goodnight, comrades!” the prefect’s voice was far, you could tell he was almost screaming. with that, he marches away, footsteps always loud, as it fades in the background. </p><p>“with that aside, i’ve been meaning to ask you,” this peaks kirigiri’s interest, earning celestia the detective’s signature look. one that she seems to have always adored. it felt familiar, it felt safe, but she didn’t know why it did. she continues, “what is with your high card stunt?”</p><p>“i should be the one asking <i>you</i> that.” that was a little more aggressive than celestia would’ve liked, “why’d you let me win out of pity?”</p><p>celestia can’t let kirigiri have the upper hand. she fixes herself on the chair, her chin resting on her hands, “oh? do pray tell.” as she accompanies with a seemingly innocent head tilt, “i, in fact, did <i>not</i> let you win. how could you accuse me of something so, <i>vile?</i>” </p><p>“the only ever instance the others won was because you never participated at all. but there was another way, you play by the game. then you fold last minute at the showdown, therefore have them win by default. there was something else too, you only do that with <i>me.</i> of course i had to test that out first if it was just a coincidence, but the last round just proves exactly <i>that.</i> what is your goal with all of this? what was <i>that</i> for? are you mocking me, celestia?” kirigiri snapping was <i>not</i> a good sight. you can’t really detect much emotion in her voice, which made it all the more terrifying. she never really spoke, unless needed or spoken to. even at times she didn’t even bother replying if someone initiated a conversation. naegi can attest to that. </p><p>“oh my, did i strike a nerve there, detective? if i ever did, i apologize, <i>truly.</i>” it wasn’t much of an apology as it was a statement. although if kirigiri got celestia, of all people to apologize, it was better than nothing. but that wasn’t the answer she was looking for. she’s seen through her lies and backhanded condescension. why is she doing this? it’s because celestia knows exactly what she’s talking about. </p><p>“cut the meta bullshit. why are you playing with me?” </p><p>“ah, it seems that you’ve seen through me after all.” celestia laughs at this. it’s like they were in their own world. she repositions her elbows on the table. she eyes the detective intensely as if she’s about to pounce her, “honestly? i find you quite intriguing, kirigiri.”</p><p>“that’s a lie.” </p><p>“oh? then how else can you explain on why i was <i>playing</i> with you?” </p><p>“i don’t want to say.” even if deep down kirigiri wanted to, she’d keep it to herself. <i>you’re a compulsive liar with a superiority complex.</i></p><p>“then i guess we have arrived stagnant again. how hard is it to believe that i have a penchant for you?” </p><p>that catches kirigiri off guard as the slightest crack could be seen in her expression, one that celestia would surely notice. </p><p>“what the fuck?” </p><p>that wasn’t anything like the reaction celestia was hoping for. </p><p>“oh, i am <i>hurt.</i> i am <i>in agony.</i> what was <i>that</i> for, detective?” that was more spiteful than kirigiri ever heard or thought she’d go. that includes her screech a few hours ago. </p><p>she stammers in her words, being caught off guard with the sudden change of character, “i-i, uh—“</p><p>“nevermind. i don’t want to hear it. pretend i never said that. besides, you never tell me shit anyway.” celestia trails off, but there was something else new. she has lost her accent. devoid of that silky faux-french she’s heard and adored so much. her voice sounds, normal. nothing out of the ordinary. a variant of her scream from before, but now just softer, raw even. </p><p>“wait, celeste, i—“</p><p>“i said, i don’t want to hear it.” she was adamant, stern. it caused kirigiri to physically freeze. it’s familiar, it’s addicting, and she didn’t know why it was. </p><p>with that, the detective didn’t know what to say or do. she just looked at the gambler, dumbfounded and drowning in guilt. </p><p>“let’s go back to our perceivably normal interactions, shall we?” </p><p>“...” </p><p>“please?”</p><p><i>please.</i> that was something you’d never think you’d hear from her. if she was willing to say please, that was enough to break down the detective’s walls, let alone having to hear her like <i>this.</i></p><p>kirigiri just nods. </p><p>“<i>good girl.</i>” accent back, it pierces through kirigiri’s ears and was quick to protest. but even so, she wasn’t fast enough. she gets interrupted as celestia continues to speak, “now, would you like to go for a quick game of blackjack?” she offers the other unopened deck to the detective. </p><p>just when kirigiri takes the unopened deck of cards, that’s when they heard <i>it.</i> the loud and gentle ringing of a bell echoing through the cafeteria. </p><p>no. that can’t be. they already heard a nighttime announcement. this surely must be a mistake, <i>right?</i></p><p>“good evening, children. please head to gym for a few special announcements.”
</p><p><br/>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p><i>“</i>what <i>are you doing?” </i></p><p>  <i>“what does it look like i’m doing? i get very bored easy you know!”</i></p><p>  <i>“just, fuck off. not cool.”</i></p><p>  <i>“eh? what’s not cool is you doing a horrible job of portraying me! you are ruining my image.”</i></p><p>  <i>“how did you manage to turn this on me?”</i></p><p>  <i>“does it even matter?”</i></p><p>  <i>“yeah, good point. cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. no doubt, no doubt, no doubt.”</i></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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